Students First dominates elections

Mironov’s victory was a landslide; the Business junior
took the election by a margin of victory of more than 1,000
“weighted” votes over the runners-up, Business School
junior Tim Moore and Engineering senior Anita Leung, who ran as
independents.

Mironov and Nathan received 2,261 votes to defeat Moore and
Leung, who won 1,201 votes. Defend Affirmative Action Party
presidential candidate Kate Stenvig, an LSA senior, and vice
presidential running mate Cyril Cordor, and LSA junior, collected
the third highest number of votes, 455, while Other Political Party
hopefuls NickChuck Heidel and running mate Matt Lapinski garnered
359.

Students First finished with equal gusto in the LSA Student
Government election . Students First presidential candidate Ryan
Ford and his vice president Lauren May took their spots on the
legislature, while party candidates also claimed eight of nine
seats for LSA-SG representatives.

Mironov could not be reached for comment. Nathan said while she
was “thrilled” about the Students First victory, she
expected a higher contingent of support for Moore and Leung.

“I felt good about our campaign and what we did, but last
night I was calling people flipping out because I thought we
weren’t going to win,” Nathan, an LSA junior, said. She
added that Students First’s increased hold over the assembly
will boost meeting attendance and increase representative
productivity.

“The future is decided by those who showed up,” she
said. “We passed a resolution last week to have a new
executive, to have it be the chief of staff, and that chief of
staff will be taking some of the responsibilities of the president
and vice president.”

The position, born out of a resolution co-sponsored by a
Students First officer and a minority-part y representative, will
afford the president and vice president more time to oversee the
operations of the assembly, such as personal projects.

The Students First platform included, among several initiatives,
more funding to student groups, funding for renovations to the
William Monroe Trotter House and overhauling housing regulations
with the city in order to ease students’ searches for
off-campus living.

Reflecting on the outcome of the election, Moore said he felt
the campaigns were positive overall and voiced his desire to work
with the Students First administration on MSA.

“I didn’t go in expecting to win,” Moore said.
“I do have plans. … I’d love to be the
treasurer.” Following his inauguration, the MSA president
appoints his or her officers with the approval of the assembly.
Moore said he called Mironov expressing his hopes to work on MSA.

Reiterating DAAP’s commitment to affirmative action,
Stenvig said,“The most important thing we have coming up is
the March 22 court date on Monday; we’ll be focusing on
getting people out to that in U of M and from Lansing,”
Stenvig said, alluding to a DAAP-backed march during a state court
hearing of a lawsuit against a proposed ballot initiative that
would ban race-conscious admissions in the state.

Stenvig added that she was pleased DAAP won two seats on MSA,
both from Rackham Graduate School.

Heidel, however, said he was not optimistic about the
OPP’s future. He said following the election he felt
“jaded” and “devastated” and had not
decided if he would revamp his party to run in future elections.

“I think the cause is going to be pretty static for the
next few months,” said Heidel, an LSA junior.

When students voted online Wednesday and Thursday, they had the
option of voting on ballot initiatives. The MSA ballot question
asked students whether they would support a $1 increase to their
student fees in order to fund Trotter House refurbishments. 2,050
students supported the initiative, while 977 voted “no”
and 518 said they were udnecided.

But students discouraged LSA-SG’s initiative — an
amendment to the legislature’s constitution that moved to
empower representatives to pick the LSA-SG president and vice
president. Currently, students elect those officers directly.