In an election marked by the highest voter turnout in recent memory, Ashley Willems-Phaneuf was elected student body president, pulling nearly double the votes of her lone opponent, Charles Silsby.
Almost 700 students voted in this year’s student government election. “It’s one of the highest voter turnouts we’ve had in years,” said Chris O’Connor, assistant dean of student life. Of the 6,161 students eligible, 681 voted, 11.1 percent of eligable students. Last year only 443 students voted in the election.
Willems-Phaneuf beat Silsby by a count of 410 votes to 206, taking 63.1 percent of the votes. She was also the highest vote getter for at-large student senator but said she will take the student body president position. “I’m really excited,” said Willems-Phaneuf.
Willems-Phaneuf said despite the workload of the job, she wants to make sure to listen to as many students as possible. “Some of the best ideas I got came from campaigning, not sitting in an office,” she said.
“I’m going to be student body president all the time,” said Willems-Phaneuf. “I’m always going to be available to students.”
“I want to make sure all of my decisions are best for students, even if some are controversial,” she added.
O’Connor had predicted a larger voter turnout this year in part because of the referendum question on the ballot. It asked if an increase in online courses would improve students’ educational experience. Of those who voted, 63 percent of students said no, while 37 percent voted yes.
Mako Bates, Sarah Bujno, John Burgess and Bryan Hill were elected as at-large student senators. The fifth at-large senate seat will go to Sandra Birdsall since she came in sixth.
Morgan DeBlois, John Finison, Brendan Morse and Thomas J. Williams were elected as resident student senators.
A tie for the last seat will cause nine students to be appointed as commuter student senators even though there are only eight seats available. Christian Brocard, Andrew Campbell, Malcolm Creighton-Smith, Samuel Harmon, Anna Ivanova, Alison Parker, Jon Rogers, Silsbury and Jessica L. Taylor took the most votes for the position. Brocard and Creighton-Smith tied for the eighth seat.
O’Connor said usually not everyone who is elected will to take the position and the person with the next most votes would be appointed.
Bates is one of only six returning student senate members. “A lot of the things we tried to do, we actually did,” he said of this past year’s student senate.
Bates has also been working with the students in the community garden project – a proposal to build a garden where the old playground is located on the Portland campus, which has been tabled indefinitely by the senate. He spoke briefly about what could be on the plate next year. “If the sustainability coalition can prove it’s useful, we could make that into an entity next year,” said Bates. The Southern Maine Sustainability Coalition is a group formed to combine environmental and sustainability student groups.
Morse is also a returning student senator, but he hopes to transfer to American University of Beirut in Lebanon next year. “I’ve put in a lot of time in student senate, but it’s also given me a lot,” he said.
Morse said he has “learned how to work within an organization where you can’t make people do things. You have to work with them to get stuff done.”
Morse said the student senate needs to be involved in the process restructuring process to “make sure [cuts] aren’t detrimental to student success.”