Andrew Gardiner picked up 974 votes to become next year’s Weber State University student body president.
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- The newly elected candidates take the stage at Weber’s Got Talent.
All results of the student government elections were announced during the Weber’s Got Talent talent show Saturday night. More than 1,900 students voted during the elections. All office winners include:
Student body president — Andrew Gardiner
Legislative vice president — Brady Harris
Programming vice president — Michael Diamond
Diversity and unity vice president — Mindy Chamberlin
Service vice president — Julia Saxton
Clubs and organizations vice president — Abelardo Saucedo
Leadership vice president — Mandie Barnes
Davis campus vice president — Alexis Marquez
“I feel so grateful for the opportunity to serve,” Gardiner said. “I can’t fathom how great next year is going to be. The thing that makes me most excited is that I look at all of the candidates, and they’re all so qualified and all so willing to work as a team. I want to go right now to a desk and start writing out plans and start getting to work.”
Gardiner won the election with 41 percent of the vote. Student body president candidates Landon Stoker and Lonald Wishom received 27 percent and 25 percent of the vote, respectively.
Other winning candidates shared Gardiner’s enthusiasm for teamwork in next year’s student government.
“It’s going to be a good year,” Chamberlin said. “We’re going to have a very good team, and I’m very happy with the results of the campaign.”
Chamberlin said the campaign process was a difficult one, especially with the anti-gay sentiment she and legislative vice president candidate Harrison Spendlove saw last week.
“This campaign has been so rough,” Chamberlin said. “It’s a real blessing that there are people out there who love us and support us, and that there are people who see me as more than just the Gay-Straight Alliance secretary.”
Saxton also said the past week was physically and emotionally draining.
“I’m relieved,” Saxton said. “When you run for office, it’s an emotional, financial, physical investment. For the past five days I’ve been up on campus for 18 hours a day, trying to get students to realize that I can do this.”
While the newly elected candidates spoke highly of their desires to utilize teamwork in enhancing student experiences at WSU, they also shared their hopes of accomplishing individual goals.
“My goal is to make sure students know where they can go to have their issues resolved in the senate,” Harris said, “and really make things better here at Weber State so people can get the most out of their education that they can.”
Chamberlin said she will use her new office to build unity through helping students gain a greater appreciation for diversity.
“My main goal is to get students to see that diversity is more than just skin color,” Chamberlin said. “It’s everything that makes you unique. It’s what you like to do, where you go to school, sexual orientation, religion, everything that makes you who you are.”
Gardiner said his goals as student body president extend beyond the boundaries of WSU’s campuses.
“One of the things I want to see is the Ogden community have more pride in this great university,” Gardiner said. “I feel like there’s a missing link. We have so much potential here and that needs to grow. The other thing I’m looking forward to working with a team to accomplish is more student involvement. Whether it’s with a club or an organization, people need to realize getting involved will just make you that much more successful when you leave with a degree.”
The complete election results are available at www.wsusignpost.com.
