-
1 of 10
-
2 of 10
-
3 of 10
-
4 of 10
-
5 of 10
-
6 of 10
-
7 of 10
-
8 of 10
-
9 of 10
-
10 of 10
Grigg and Bunt win ASBSU Presidency: updated 4:29 Friday
Archive
Comments
Story
Grigg and Bunt win ASBSU Presidency (Updated from breaking news flash)
Compiled by
ARBITER STAFF
The next president and vice president of the Associated Students of Boise State University are Trevor Grigg and Joe Bunt.
“I am really nervous,” Grigg said in his winning speech. “I lost a lot of hair this week. I want to thank our opponents. It was a fun campaign – I made a lot of friends. I am excited to work for the students of Boise State to get things done. To get the students motivated on campus . we can. I am excited to get started.”
Senator Mariah Fowler announced ASBSU election results at noon Friday on the Brava Stage of the SUB in front of a crowd of candidates and their supporters.
Grigg and Bunt received 641 of the 1,686 votes cast. Brett Berning and Tyler Gaylord came in second with 530 votes. Jessica Martin and Evan Meriwether received 351 and Jesse Barnum and Martin Taylor took 164 votes.
“I feel that everybody’s effort was just really strong,” Berning said. “Grigg and Bunt were out there showing their energy weeks before, and it showed in their win. I think coming in second place means there’s more work for me to do, to grow, but I showed the students that I care and I’m going to continue to do that no matter what. I’m proud of all the Students United. Everyone on our team was elected, minus myself and Tyler, so that to me proves that we are a strong team.”
Berning said he has the opportunity to work with international students on campus and plans to continue trying to get students involved.
There were only a few Senate seats that were up for grabs, with the majority of senators running unopposed. Incumbent Kayleigh Jack, in a tight race with Ben Larsen, was named the next senator for the College of Social Sciences and Public Affairs.
Jack said she plans to be a liaison between the college administration and the students by communicating with both students and administrators. She also wants to bring more music to campus. Jack feels that she can be effective because she already knows how the Senate works.
Justin White beat Deborah Gorberg by ten votes to win the seat for the College of Arts and Sciences.
Some students in the Graduate College had trouble voting early Thursday because of a glitch in the system that was fixed by noon Thursday.
“Some graduate students were given a choice of another college,” said Leah Barrett, Executive Director of Student Development. Barrett said that each student vote is tied to an encrypted ID number. By tracking the numbers, administrators found that 9 graduate students may have voted for a College of Arts and Sciences senator, and 18 may have voted for an SSPA senator. The possible irregularities did not affect the outcome of the election, Barrett said.
The College senators are: Robert Heise, College of Applied Technology; Saul Solis, College of Business and Economics; Cara Mia De Marco, College of Education;
Geo Engberson, College of Engineering; and Mark Bathrick, Graduate College. There is currently no College of Health Sciences senator.
There were 10 people running for the eight at-large senate seats.
The winners for those eight seats are: Gracie Bingham, Cortney Christian, Kelsey Ferrel, Joel Henretty, Bridget Montgomery, Gabe Murphy, Kyle Tuckness and Sami Winkelman.
The two candidates who did not get elected as at-large senators are Brindee Probst and Jason Denizac.
Denizac was closest to getting in, with 541 votes. Sami Winkelman earned the lowest number of votes on the winning ballot with 587, with Kyle Tuckness just ahead with 588.
Cortney Christian received the most at-large votes, 656.
“I think that I have the ability to make a difference here at Boise State, as I’ve done already in this last term, I think, anyway,” Christian said. “I’m just going to continue to be as financially responsible for the student fees that we receive at ASBSU and do everything that I can for each and every student here at BSU.”
Christian thanked Berning for motivating him to run for Senate.
Gabe Murphy, who received the second-highest number of votes, plans to increase student involvement by spending more of ASBSU’s funds.
“I’d like to see us go from $3,000 to $5,000 in our matching funds [for student clubs], increase student involvement that way, and just proactively spend as much money as we can until ASBSU becomes effective again,” Murphy said.
Inauguration for ASBSU is April 23, and the new Senate first meets April 24.
Grigg and Bunt said they plan to work with the Senate.
“I already know a lot of the senators . I’ve become friends with all of them, I think, through the campaign,” Grigg said. “I really think they’re excited to work with us. I really don’t think we’ll have problems.”
The two expressed surprise at winning.
“It wasn’t that we weren’t both optimistic but we were just very sick, nervous, all day yesterday and then all night it was like, ‘I think we won,’ and then it was like, ‘No, we didn’t.’ It was just a rollercoaster ride,” Grigg said.
“We would just walk back and forth across the whole campus, and just talk to people and shake their hands and introduce ourselves to them, so it was a more personal basis,” Grigg said. “We’d get a lot more commitment that way from people than just like, ‘Here’s a flier, go throw that away for me.’”
Grigg and Bunt said that they plan to hire lobbyists this summer to represent BSU before the Idaho legislature and will be looking for students who can be effective lobbyists. They want the legislature to pass a bill extending the Idaho Promise Scholarship. They also plan to work toward increasing student involvement on campus.