By Deanna Krokos, Senior Staff Writer
Student Body Presidential and Vice-Presidential Candidates Joey Parizek and Matthew Kovesdy defeated Kevin Krumpak and Amy Berg last night in the Student Body run-off election. Parizek and Kovesdy secured 51 percent of the 2,734 votes submitted between Wednesday and Thursday, winning by less than 100 total votes.
This week, the two candidate teams, after beating out three others in the general election, participated in this year's annual presidential debate.
In the debate, proctored by current Student Body Vice President Natalie Bata, the two teams answered a number of questions regarding their plans and qualifications for their hopeful term in leadership.
Each team was asked about their main platform points, and were able to elaborate on why they think their goals for the position are worthwhile and important.
Both teams were further asked about the student body president as a position, and the qualities they feel are most important to embody, should they be elected.
"I think we have a unique ability to bring a radical change to the overall culture of ASG and cabinet," said Parizek. "What we'd like to bring to the table is more of a team-oriented and relationship-focused leadership style."
As a review, their main platform points were addressing dining reform, promoting the creation of a centralized scholarship database and working to make studying abroad more affordable.
Now that the elections are over, the question remains how effective these new student leaders will be.
"I think the most important thing that a student body president can do is to unite the student body in general," said current on-campus senator Brandon Fogel. "Policies and ideas are great, but if they don't have the support of the student body, it's going to be very challenging for them to have those ideas."