The results of the fall senate elections were announced on Tuesday in Talley Student Union, at 9 p.m, with 13 undergraduate and graduate students winning their respective races.
The newly elected senators include 10 first-year senators and three graduate senators. Eighteen students ran for the 10 available first-year senator seats, and over 600 votes were cast in total.
The newly elected first-year senators are David Flowers, Skye McCollum, Amy Clemmons, Dominic Rodts, Michael Evans, Jared Smith, Jean Ferman, Aitana Blevins, Morgan Fitzgerald and Vish Pillai.
Mitkumar Pandya, Mike Madden and Addison Kasmarek were elected to serve as graduate senators.
“I’m so excited to start working, and start doing my jobs, this is amazing,” McCollum said.
During the campaign process, most candidates used a variety of methods to raise awareness of their campaign. Some methods included chalking, passing out flyers, spray painting the Free Expression Tunnel, social media and personally meeting with students.
“I talked to everybody I saw; I gave out flyers to people, chalking outside, we spray painted the Free Expression Tunnel,” McCollum said.
Aitana Blevins, a first-year senator studying engineering, said that her life was extremely busy while campaigning during the past week.
“It was stressful,” Blevins said. “I didn’t realize how busy college life was during a campaign, but it was good, good stuff.”
Student Senate President Mitchell Moravec, a fifth-year studying psychology and materials science and engineering, stressed the importance of the newly elected senator’s roles in Student Government during an interview with Technician.
“We’re voting on very important things tomorrow, including student fees and how we do student business, so their vote and representation is important,” Moravec said.
Ideally, the new senators will be sworn in at the Student Senate meeting Wednesday night, according to Moravec. Moravec hopes that he is able to also properly introduce the newly elected senators the procedures of Student Senate.
“Hopefully, as Senate president, I can break down the meeting tomorrow as I’m going through the meeting, so they [the newly elected first-year senators] don’t feel too lost or confused,” Moravec said.
Many of the newly elected first-year senators are eager to begin working with the student body and Student Government to implement their ideas, including McCollum.
“I really want to form a better connection between Student Government and the student body to encourage the development of individual passions and get more funding to the things that people are interested in and really care about,” McCollum said.
The current connection between the student body and Student Government is less than ideal, according to Blevins. She hopes that student body involvement with Student Government will increase.
“I was surprised by how many kids didn’t know what Student Government was, so I want to get more kids involved, and informed about what Student Government does at NC State,” Blevins said.
The next period of elections will be spring semester 2018, when student body officer and general senate elections occur.
“All in all, I think we had a good turnout and a fair election,” Moravec said.
The Board of Elections prepares to reveal the fall senate election results in Talley Student Center on Tuesday.
