On Monday, April 4, 2011, some time after 1:00 p.m. depend­ing on grade level and e-mail ad­dress, Colgate University students discovered the results of the 2011 Student Government Association (SGA) President and Vice President elections. The e-mail sent out to all students listed the voting percent­ages, deductions for each campaign and totals. The results, with deduc­tions factored in, revealed that ju­niors Mike Miller and Andrew Sch­lenger had won the election with 600.93 votes and 54.58 percent, to the 488.319 votes and 44.35 per­cent of junior Alex Restrepo and junior Michael Frank.

Although the 2011 election had its own share of deductions, includ­ing “false comments on website” from students who had signed their comments as President Chopp and President Herbst and a “fire code violation,” the election results were revealed in a timely fashion and largely free of the controversy of last year.

Senior Liz Brodsky, current SGA President and no stranger to the election process, stated that she “thought the elections ran very smoothly, and the election com­missioners did an exceptional job running clean and fair elections.”

With 1,101 votes counted, Brod­sky was particularly pleased with the Colgate voter turn­out which was greater than 2010 and several previous years.

The results of the election were also revealed to both campaigns through e-mail. Soon-to-be SGA President Miller was at the library with his friends when he heard the news. Although Miller said it was “hardly a place to celebrate,” he confesses that when the election committee congratulated him, “needless to say, it was a pretty good feeling.”

And while, thousands of miles away, Restrepo and Frank received the opposite message in their in­boxes, both contend that they “are proud of [their] showing.” In fact, immediately after the results came out, both Restrepo and Frank sent congratulatory notes to the mem­bers of the winning campaign.

“We are already talking with Mike and Andrew to enact mean­ingful change at Colgate [for the upcoming year],” Restrepo said.

Both Restrepo and his run­ning mate Frank are on study abroad trips for Spring 2011. Restrepo believes their absence from campus this semester made the campaign and elec­tion incredibly difficult. Brod­sky added that she believed “it would have been interest­ing to see how the election [would have gone] if Restrepo and Frank were on campus.”

Despite this disadvantage, all four candidates and the SGA were inspired by the election and are excited to see what will come of the new student leaders of Col­gate University. While Brodsky, who will remain SGA president until the end of the academic year, comes to terms with the end of her leadership, she offers her full support for Miller and Schlenger.

“I am very confident that Miller and Schlenger will do great things with their term. I have worked closely with both of them on SGA in the past and I have seen them both work hard,” Brodsky said.

Miller expresses his grati­tude for the election turnout and encourages the rest of the student body to get involved. Both he and Schlenger have begun plans for their Executive Board, to be installed this fall. The newly-elected President and Vice President are open to ideas and encourage students to send them to [email protected].