Bell Tower Resurgence was victorious in Temple Student Government’s (TSG) spring elections April 13 and 14. The team of Naeem Thompson, Sarah Baker and Dekwuan Postell will serve the 22nd General Assembly as President, Vice President of Academic Affairs and Vice President of Student Affairs, respectively.
Election Commissioner Denica Beaton and Parliamentarian Tomas Varela announced unofficial election results Monday to TSG’s General Assembly, who then voted to approve the election results.
The spring election followed a series of debates between the two parties, Temple United and Bell Tower Resurgence, where various issues were raised, including diversity, accountability of student leaders and promotions of TSG.
A total of 2,060 valid ballots were submitted for this year’s election. Of those ballots, 1,919 were submitted online and 150 submitted on paper. Of Temple’s 33,286 students (excluding Japan), approximately 6 percent voted. Bell Tower Resurgence won 53 percent of student votes, edging out Temple United’s team of Oscar Chow, Kyle Kelly and Joann Noel.
Thompson, a rising senior, will assume leadership of TSG after current president Bryan Carter. The team of Thompson, Baker and Postell will continue the work of the present government while attempting to implement some initiatives of their own.
Thompson said the Bell Tower Resurgence plans on “working closely with the press director and getting the message out for what TSG is: a viable avenue for students to address concerns and issues and also carrying on with what the current government has in place.”
Current TSG President Carter was pleased with the election results. “The better prepared slate won the election,” he said. He attributed the opposing platform’s loss to not being as involved in TSG.
But Carter was displeased with how the election campaigns went overall.
“I thought the campaign was deplorable,” Carter said. “People took it from talking about issues to people’s character. It stopped being about Temple … to me, the elections weren’t about TSG. It was about people’s characters and that’s not right. Both sides got scared, one side lashed out and the other side lashed back. It inherently happens in every election. It is the nature of politics.”
Noel, a rising senior who campaigned for the position of vice president of academic affairs under Temple United, partly attributed her party’s loss to not addressing more of their platform’s 16 points and not being a well known face within TSG.
The incumbents had a voting base that worked to their advantage, said Chow, who campaigned under Temple United for student body president.
Bell Tower Resurgence ran under a 12-point platform that included such points as “retaining diversity, a student government resurgence initiative, increased use of current communication tools, increased administration/student communication and transportation augmentation.”
With more students living off campus because of housing shortages, the newly elected party proposes that the University commits to “running efficient shuttles from the areas it currently serves, and expand upon the shuttle program to service Temple students living in other neighborhoods of the city.”
The team of Thompson, Baker and Postell plan to open the lines of communication between administration and students. This initiative is addressed in the party’s platform: “Many of the policies that are put into place are done without the consultation of students and their opinions taken into account. A continued approach to open communication between administration and students is necessary.”
Meanwhile, the TSG General Assembly voted Monday, April 19 for administrative positions of parliamentarian, speaker of the General Assembly, secretary, press director and treasurer for the 22nd General Assembly. Chanel Dennis, Marissa Procope, Kadja Desir, Brian Harvey and Cristina Ackas will be the administrative officers for the 22nd General Assembly, respectively. Positions for the treasurer, speaker and secretary were uncontested
Charmie Snetter can be reached at snett77@temple.edu.
Be the first to comment