In the spring ASUI election, 21.2 percent of undergraduates voted, which according to the University of Idaho Director of Student Involvement Colleen Quinn, is 3.5 percent higher than the national average and 12.7 percent higher than peer-institution Boise State University’s turnout in their most recent election.
Abi Stomberg | Argonaut
ASUI senate, presidential and vice presidential winners celebrate by singing the Idaho Fight song at 8 p.m. Wednesday in the Idaho Commons Rotunda. The smoking ban and the Moscow-Pullman Transit survey results were announced along with the election winners.
Results were announced at 8 p.m. Wednesday in the Idaho Commons Rotunda and with roughly 52 percent of the 1,783 votes cast, Max Cowan and Taylor Williams are the next ASUI president and vice president. Cowan said the effort they put into campaigning is what helped them win.
“We met with the most students,” Cowan said. “We went to over 15 apartment complexes to meet with off campus students, we sent 2,500 student emails to reach off campus voters, we went to every residence hall and met with them, we went to so many different Greek houses and we just took the time to meet with as many students as possible. We also flyered these last three days. We handed out over 2,000 flyers and I think that really made a difference.”
Williams said social media had an impact.
“I think really utilizing social media also, we were on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter and I think that helped,” Williams said. “We had a lot of followers on our Facebook page and I think doing up-to-date posts really kept them informed, and by them liking it, it spread the word on their pages as well.”
Cowan also thanked their campaign team, which included three campaign co-managers and a staff that helped them pass out flyers and mobilize on Facebook.
Cowan said a successful officer transition is the first step toward addressing their campaign’s issues of cost, safety and campus life.
“The first step for us is that we are going to be transitioned by Hannah Davis, so we’ll be passing the torch and learning all of the integral steps to becoming the president and for Taylor the vice president,” Cowan said. “Then from that point we’ll be meeting with university administrators to prepare for next year. Then over the summer we will start working on and planning for all the things we want to do.”
While Cowan and Williams ran on a platform of three main issues, Cowan said he hoped to address others as well.
“In this time of transition, since both President Nellis and Provost Baker are leaving I think it’s really important to make sure that the student voice is heard in the selection of candidates for those positions,” Cowan said. “So that’s one big issue, and from this point on we really want to get methods for collecting student feedback up as swiftly as possible so that then hopefully we can tailor our work directly to what the students want done.”
Eight new senators were also elected to represent students. They are: Grady Hepworth, Nate Fisher, Anthony Filcetti, Kelly James Fisher, Katharine Wongmankitkan, Andrew Baldridge, Alejandra Gonzalez and Tyler Wittreich.
Fifty-four percent of students who voted identified as Greek compared to 30 percent off-campus students and 16 percent residence hall students. An overwhelming majority, 1,015 students, voted in favor of the ASUI Constitutional Amendment that will remove the requirement that members of ASUI only vote within their districts.
Students said they would like to see Vandal Entertainment bring Evanna Lynch — Luna Lovegood in “Harry Potter” — to UI. Sixty-seven percent of students said they would use a Moscow-Pullman shuttle bus. Seven hundred and forty-five students supported a smoke-free campus policy compared to 636 who favored no change in policy. Seven hundred thirty-one students said Facebook was how they kept up to date with events on campus compared to just 73 who said they relied on The Argonaut and KUOI.
Andrew Deskins can be reached at [email protected]