This past week, the election for the Student Union (SU) was conducted online, with results announced on 3/08/2024. As usual, the election was a fairly low turnout affair, with only 24.4% of the eligible student body voting (as of Thursday at noon). The online election infrastructure was managed by current SU Election Commissioner Constantin Carrigan, who notified every student via email of the election. Before the election, SU had produced a Voting Guide that listed all of the candidates and their responses to relevant questions.
Notably, the election witnessed the defeat of various student-activist candidates. Saish Saytal and Sonal Churiwal, both of whom ran on platforms of “student advocacy” and activism, lost their races for President and Executive Vice-President of the Student Union respectively. These races were the most discussed ahead of the election with students such as Tim Mellman (a friend of The Danforth Dispatch) making high-profile endorsements of the winning candidates for President and Executive Vice-President — Hussein Amuri and Andy Mun, respectively. These contested races caused many (otherwise disinterested) students to vote, as they did not want Churiwal to win, due to her previous extreme anti-Israel statements, and the fear that she would pursue various pro-BDS policies.
As for the winners of the races, on the executive committee, Hussein Amuri was elected as the President of SU, Ashton Lee as Vice-President of Engagement, Abby Sode as Vice-President of Programming, Meris Damjanovic as Vice-President of Finance, and Andy Mun as Executive Vice-President. Eleven Student Senators and eleven Student Treasury Representatives were also elected, and block funding for the EST (Student Emergency Services), “Uncle Joe’s,” and “Campus Y” programs were also passed.