Robert Huffman is the new Student Government president – unofficially that is.
According to SG’s unofficial election results, Huffman and his vice president April Turner beat the other two presidential tickets with 1,123 votes. Helen Pferdehirt and Ryan Ebanks lost with 464 votes, while Elrigea McIntosh and Jonathan Howell followed up with 338. A total of 1,925 students voted of the 28,140 students at FAU.
Ella Tepper and Kayleigh Snyder both ran undefeated for governor positions. Still, Tepper won the Boca governor position with 813 votes and Snyder got eight votes for Treasure Coast governor. John Cordero beat Leydo Anciano for Broward governor by 26 votes. Kadeem Ricketts beat Stephen Jones by 10 votes for MacArthur governor.
Here are the elected seats for the House of Representatives:
Boca:
Neil Coffman, 193 votes
Patricio Coicou, 220 votes
Lucas Crostarosa, 270 votes
Ashley Davis, 265 votes
Tyler Dowling, 293 votes
Daniela Fernandez, 215 votes
Jessica Guijarro, 228 votes
Edward Mahoney, 275 votes
Kristina Thornton, 235 votes
Treasure Coast:
Chezare Reyes, 7 votes
Broward:
William Bavier, 81 votes
Adrienne Clark, 101 votes
MacArthur:
Gerline Christophe, 104 votes
Emma Nunan, 149 votes
The Elections Board will hold complaint and appeal hearings from March 12-14. Official results will be posted once all complaints and appeals are heard by the Elections Board, Student Court and Office of Student Affairs,
New SG officer training will begin on May 6.
Interchangeable House Rep • Mar 18, 2012 at 4:52 pm
Dave, so much of what you said was so true, until you started suggesting that Maher changed everything…lol! You know every year candidates promise to get banners on Glades road, and yes Maher is one of them…..granted hes trying, but I dare say thats just another recycled promise that never goes anywhere yet they keep on promising it (including Huffman)…..Maher did not vote against tuition increases….he may have spoken against it but he didn’t vote against the increases….the athletic fee is an example of a fee he was against….but I bet you didn’t know that in 2010 A&S fees went up, and it was followed by an across the board salary increase for student employees including SG officials. Recently a meeting was held by Student Affairs and a couple SG officials including Maher and he motioned and voted for a 5% increase in the A&S fee, even though we just increased it in 2010, and despite the fact that SG doesn’t even spend all the money it sets aside to be spent and even though we set aside reserves. The BOT ignoring his constant pushing against fee increases? He’s right now supporting an increase, while the HOUSE and SENATE passed resolutions against increases… One thing I never understand is how SG Presidents have a vote in whether tuition can go up or not, and yet get tuition reimbursement, meaning they vote on something for us that doesn’t even affect them. Each President has never tried to change that and Maher is no different. We talk to FSA in Tallahassee, but thats it, the Prez just sits in on those meetings, and its sad because since our University is spread across the state with so many campuses, we can have the ear of so many more State Legislators than other schools, but there’s been no effort to expand our lobbying pull….we just sit pat and let our President have a seat at FSA and go up to Tallahassee when the lobbying work couldve been done months before…. I’m not saying that Maher has been a bad President, nor do I doubt he has improved SG in several areas, but to act like there’s been this great amazing change in the atmosphere is laughable.
Dave • Mar 17, 2012 at 5:06 pm
Juanita, generally speaking the election results are pointless. For example the House reps are interchangeable and the Governors don’t ever really do anything worthwhile (attending meetings to “represent the students” is not an accomplishment). Students often take positions in clubs and SGA to pad their CV, not to effect any real change at FAU, so when you have people that really change the atmosphere the way Maher did, it’s extraordinary. Problem is, most of the big issues that students have, like parking or tuition hikes or class availability, are way over the authority level of SGA. Every year a naive-but-well-meaning candidate promises to do something about the issues but they can’t. They’re neutered. SGA President Maher fights against fee increases all the time and the BOT ignores him. What they can and SHOULD do is continue the effort to make FAU more traditional in every way and support initiatives that make us a first-choice institution.
juanita hopkins • Mar 16, 2012 at 1:48 pm
There are over twenty thousand students enrolled at Florida Atlantic University yet, 0.068% of the student body voted in the Student Government election. How does this happen? Is the turn out of the election a result of student body apathy or are the candidates doing a poor job of reaching out to the students they proclaim to be interested in representing? Isn’t it a true leaders duty to contemplate ways of appeal to their entire audience? The ratio of students enrolled to student voters is drastically disproportionate. Did the candidates only notify their friends about the election? Regarding FAU’s seemingly nonchalant student body I offer this: Student Government is handed nine million dollar of your money! Take interest in how they spend it. Hold your fellow students accountable for their frivolous spending habits. Read the annual budgets, sporadic audits, internal employee raise votes, and ask yourself if you agree or disagree with the manner in which your hard earned tuition dollars (Activity and Service fee: $11.96)are being managed. There was $200,000 allocated to homecoming and a meager $21,000 allocated for leadership development programs. I beg my fellow students to pay attention.