The official results of the Temple Student Government election for the 2003-2004 academic year were announced at Monday’s TSG General Assembly meeting.
TSG Election Commissioner Denica Beaton announced that Team Temple 2 won the election with 974 votes to A Better Temple’s 502.
The election was held on April 15 and 16 last week.
Team Temple 2 consisted of Bryan Carter, who is the current TSG Speaker of the General Assembly, for President, Dekwuan Postell, the current Vice President of Student Affairs who was running for reelection, and Sarah Baker for Vice President of Academic Affairs.
The new executive members will be sworn in on May 5 at the last General Assembly meeting of the year.
At the meeting, Postell thanked everyone who voted in the election and encouraged his opponents to stay involved with TSG.
President-elect Carter said he was confident throughout the election and was excited about his new position in TSG.
He said he will carry out his campaign promises, which included finding alternate methods of funding organizations through independent budgets rather than TSG allocations, reforms to academic advising, more University-sponsored graduate tests and working to improve communication between students and TSG and administrations through student media.
Carter said he wants to increase student participation from other campuses such as Ambler and Tyler through working with their student governments.
He said that he wants to see more students traveling between the campuses.
On the issue of expanding the use of student media, Carter said, “I want to utilize SCAT [the School of Communications and Theater]. We have a good communications school.
I think it’s a great opportunity for communications major students, so I want more student involvement in those media. It will help to develop them as well.”
Postell said he would focus on student issues and make TSG more visible and approachable for students.
“We are here for them and we are all about students,” he said.
With his experience on the executive board, Postel said he could help create an easier working environment for his teammates.
Sarah Baker is a new face to TSG leadership.
Baker is a member of the TSG Internal Operations Committee, but had no previous TSG leadership experience.
She said she was very excited when she found out her victory.
“I started thinking about a million things already,” she said.
She plans to focus on researching advising and graduate tests at other Universities.
She also proposed to improve the Temple Kiosks, which are the red boxes with touch screens located around the main campus.
As one of the tools for communication, she said she plans to install them at dorms and provide updates with TSG meeting and event schedules.
Baker also said she enjoyed campaigning.
Although she said the turnouts were lower than she expected, she enjoyed talking to students during campaign.
When asked about his opponents, Postell said, “They had some good ideas. I’d love to work together.”
Carter agreed, “I really want them to stay active and want to see them in [TSG] office.”
Their opponents on the A Better Temple slate expressed disappointment about the result.
The candidates on A Better Temple were Ryan McKeon for President, Nick Papacostas for Vice President of Academic Affairs, and Justin DiBlassio for Vice President of Student Affairs.
McKeon said he was surprised about the low voter turnout.
He also criticized the election as “politics as usual at Temple,” referring to the fact that his opponents had previous TSG leadership experience.
“I think [Team Temple 2’s] focus is too narrow,” said DiBlassio.
” We are maybe over-ambitious, but that was our quality.”
He also promised his continued involvement in TSG regardless of the loss.
“I’ll make sure the new executive board carry out their platforms, and do not neglect students voices,” he said.
Saeko Komura can be reached at saekokomura@yahoo.co.jp.
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