Rory Norris, a 1B biotechnology student and the sole candidate who ran for WUSA president, has been approved for the role with 65 per cent of voters voting yes. Katie Traynor, a 2B planning student and the sole VP candidate, was also approved with 79 per cent yes votes.
Despite the uncompetitive officer elections, the director race was packed with 21 candidates running for 11 seats.
Amanda Adam was elected to one of the seats on board under the faculty guarantee system, as the only faculty of science student running. Current WUSA president Stephanie Ye-Mowe was also elected as one of the directors, as were current WUSA directors Jeff Zhu and Jay Lan. The remaining seats were won by Alexander Chaban, Matthew Athanasopoulos, Tham Sivakumaran, Chevin Jeon, Anshul Ruhil, Ahmed Elmahi, and Ailin Jalili. Current directors Rania Datoo and Daud Khan did not win their reelection bids.
After last year’s low voter turnout, then WUSA president Benjamin Easton had said, “The new [WUSA governance] model is conducive to [increasing voter turnout], where there is a greater amount of competition, which generally increases turnout.”
The increased competition did not result in a higher turnout. Out of 35160 eligible voters this year, only 1155 cast their ballots, making voter turnout 3.28 per cent — almost a per cent drop from last year.
These results are unofficial until either the current board or the general assembly receives the Election and Referenda Officer’s report and ratifies the results.
If these results are ratified, the board of directors for the coming governing year will have three students each from the faculties of math and environment; two each from health, engineering, and science; and one from arts.
Incoming Board of Directors (May 2023 to April 2024) (Subject to ratification)
President: Rory Norris — Science
Vice-President: Katie Traynor — Environment
Directors:
- Amanda Adam – Science
- Stephanie Ye-Mowe – Environment
- Jeff Zhu – Engineering
- Jay Lan – Math
- Alexander Chaban – Environment
- Matthew Athanasopoulos – Engineering
- Tham Sivakumaran – Arts
- Chevin Jeon – Math
- Anshul Ruhil – Math
- Ahmed Elmahi – Health
- Ailin Jalili – Health
