The votes are in and counted. With a three-ticket race, this Stu-dent Government Association (SGA) Presidential Election was expected to be a close one. It didn’t disappoint, with the winners end-ing up less than four-percentage points ahead of the runners-up. This past Wednesday, April 4, the SGA Election Commissioners an-nounced that juniors Matt Ford and Joe Trapp will be the next President and Vice President of the SGA.

“This year’s election saw over 1,200 students vote, a good 100 more than we saw last year,” Elec-tion Commissioner first-year Nick Harper said. “Because there were three tickets running this year in-stead of two, we knew that it would be a close race and it was.”

Receiving 468 votes, Ford and Trapp defeated the opposing tickets of fellow juniors Amy-Elise McBeth and Ali Berkman (433 votes) and Bryan Ferguson and Colin Cowles (292 votes). Although both of the losing tickets were tagged with de-ductions from their vote totals, they were ultimately proved insignificant with regard to the race’s outcome.

“All three tickets ran a good campaign,” Election Commis-sioner sophomore Lauren Tuttle said. “The majority of the deduc-tions came from small things, such as hanging signs in the wrong areas. But everyone acted in the spirit of competition.”

For Ford and Trapp, this elec-tion has brought them full-circle. It was back when they were first-years that they met while working together on the 2010 SGA presi-dential campaign of Chris Moy ’11. Since then, they have embed-ded themselves in a diverse array of Colgate clubs, associations and organizations. It is the depth of their commitment that made Ford and Trapp a compelling ticket to voters, the same depth that they believe will make them successful leaders of the SGA.

Ford, the president-elect, has been the SGA Liaison for the past two years. As Li-aison, Ford has had the role of overseeing all SGA student organizations and task forces, a sizable responsibility that he has taken head-on. In an effort to increase the transparency of clubs around campus, Ford was an instru-mental force in bringing “GetInvolved” to campus this past fall.

“This service is basically Facebook for student groups, and is completely chang-ing the way the Student Government As-sociation and Center for Leadership and Student Involvement (CLSI) administrate student groups,” Ford said. “I’m looking forward to further promoting it over the coming year.”

Ford, a philosophy major and econom-ics minor, has kept himself busy outside of the SGA as well. He is a brother of Delta Upsilon fraternity (DU), a member of the Men’s rugby team, the treasurer of both the Protoculture Club and the 2013 Class Council, founder of the Fish and Game Club and an Apartment Manager at Parker Apartments. It is these diverse experiences that Ford believes will allow him to reach a broad scope of Colgate students.

Trapp, Ford’s second-in-command, is an English major and history minor who has a seasoned background of his own. This past year, he served on the SGA Executive Board as well as the Campus Master Planning Committee. Trapp has also participated in the Broad Street Asso-ciation (BSA), the Spring Party Weekend (SPW) Taskforce, Leadership Options for Tomorrow (LOFT) and he has worked for the Admissions Office as well.

“The diversity of our experiences is what allows us to work so efficiently together,” Trapp said. “We gained experience, connec-tions and a general appreciation for every-thing that goes on behind the scenes. This is what will allow us to provide the results that the student body desires in a timely manner.”

As current SGA President Mike Miller hands over the reins within the coming weeks, Ford and Trapp are excited to put their platform into action.

“We plan to waste no time,” Ford said. “Once our executive board comes together on April 17, we’ll be working through the end of the school year and over the summer.”

As SGA President, Ford hopes to make the spending of the Budget Allocations Com-mittee (BAC) more transparent, to rename the rugby pitch (currently Academy Field) to Victor Krivitski Memorial Field and to revisit Colgate’s no-keg policy. In addition, Trapp looks to continue his work on revamping the James C. Colgate Student Union (JCC) to make it a more prominent hub of cam-pus life that promotes unity among all class years. Although these are some of their big-ger goals for the upcoming year, they have also expressed a desire for more fundamental transformations as well.

“While the most exciting points of our platform are rather innovative, the main thing that Matt and I are trying to im-prove on from the past is the general ef-ficiency of the way things are done on campus,” Trapp said. “By making it easier for people to get into their stride, students will be able to do more with the limited time that we have on campus.”

Ford and Trapp have even reached out to their former opposition to enact some of their goals, as well. The experience and commitment of Ford and Trapp make them well qualified for their new positions at the head of the SGA, but only time will tell how successful their platform truly is.

“Since we’ve been planning this for so long, we have a good idea of how to accom-plish everything we said we would,” Ford said. “This is going to be a big year for the student body.”

Contact Cody Semrau at [email protected]