By Elianna Novitch
This year, 12.19 percent of University of Iowa undergraduate students voted in the UI Student Government Elections.
The fairly average voter turnout chose Jacob Simpson and Lilián Sánchez for president and vice president (running unopposed), who were announced alongside 38 Senate candidates on April 14.“The voter turnout [this year] compared to historical years has kind of been the median,” Student Elections Commissioner Alisha McTaggart said. “There have been higher years, up to 30 percent, but there have been historical years as low as 9 percent, so 12.19 percent isn’t a significant amount, but I think that for the uncontested election [we had], it was a fairly good turnout.”
Four independent candidates won among the 38 senators: Joe Reed, Jenna Pokorny, Cameron Cooper, and Angel Alicea.
Reed said he looks forward to working with members of Simpson and Sánchez’s party, Bridge UI.
“As far as working with this administration, Bridge UI was full of really incredible people,” he said. “All of them were really passionate and hardworking students. I am super excited to collaborate with them on issues that are most important on campus right now and to really enhance student life.”
UISG Sen. Abby Simon was also upbeat about the year to come.
“I’m really excited about the platform we have, and I think we’ll do great things for campus,” she said. “Jacob and Lilián are super-qualified, and they’ll do a great job leading our campus.”
Simpson and Sánchez’s platform addressed campus environment, sustainability, education, affordability, student organizations, health and safety, and leadership and engagement.
“I think everybody who was elected is committed to really hearing every students’ story and representing them to the best of their ability, whether it be to administration, the state, even our national government and making sure that their interests are always cared for in the best way possible,” Simpson said.
Still to come later this week are the constituency senator elections, which elects people specifically from the LGBTQ, Latinx, veteran, and other communities.
“We plan to continue to stay engaged with the constituency senator races,” Sánchez said. “There’s no doubt that each community is going to have amazing representation, so we’re looking forward to working with whoever gets elected.”
Sánchez encouraged students to reach out to the new administration regarding their ideas and concerns about the UI.
“I would say [to students], don’t discount yourself from the process,” Sánchez said. “Students here have as much power as the student-government representatives do, and so without the voice of students, without their letting us know what their concerns are and ideas on how to make our campus better, we wouldn’t be the best team that we can be.”