Emily Yu was voted Student Government president for the 2012-2013 school year by 30 votes.
Deon Jones followed in second, Abby Finn in third and Charles Merrick in fourth.
“I knew it was going to be a close race, but this was incredibly, incredibly close,” Yu said.
Yu has already begun looking into how AU divides scholarships between academic merit and financial need. She plans to revamp and restructure the SG, giving more attention to departments that have not been as active.
Yu will also ask the administration to pursue fixed tuition.
“Those are the things I have been running on, those are the things I plan to do now,” Yu said.
She plans to celebrate on the Quad Friday.
“[Because] that’s what I want the administration to be about,” Yu said about celebrating in a space big enough for anyone to celebrate with her. “Really, really open.”
Current SG President Tim McBride said Yu will be a hardworking and effective president.
“I think she’s, given her experience, she’s going to be a phenomenal president,” McBride said.
McBride originally endorsed Finn. It has been at least two years since an outgoing president did not endorse the same candidate that eventually became president-elect.
Jones, who received only 30 less votes than Yu, said the loss will not stop his fight for AU students through the Advisory Neighborhood Commission.
“Of course you want to win, so I’m a little sad,” Jones said.
Merrick, who ran on the platform of changing AU presidency to a monarchy, said his campaign started out as a joke, but became serious when he realized he had a chance to win.
“People were staggered by how good they [their campaign material] looked and it set a tone of professionalism,” Merrick said. “She had put that much commitment into this campaign and we thought we should all be doing the same.”
Had Merrick won, he said he would have accepted the position and gone forward with his plans to change AU to a monarchy and take away students’ right to vote.
“To get 20 percent of the vote asking on the platform that you want to become king in the United States of America is somewhat hilarious and somewhat spectacular,” Merrick said.
Finn could not be reached for comment.
Yu will work with Vice President-elect Palak Gosar, who will oversee the Kennedy Political Union and the Student Union Board.
"I'm really excited to work with Emily,” Gosar said. “Over the summer, the four of us will have an opportunity to bond, and we'll be all set for next fall."
Ty Lane, who came in second place for VP with 33.7 percent of the vote, said she hopes to work with Gosar to arrange a pep rally in the fall.
"It was definitely upsetting,” Lane said. “I feel like I could have done a lot of good."
Students re-elected Kevin Sutherland as SG Secretary.
"It's going to be great to start working with the group,” Sutherland said. “We have a lot of great ideas for this year, and we plan on working closely with the students."
Eric Reath was elected comptroller. He was appointed last year after Comptroller-elect Taylor Yeates stepped down.
"We're like the mid-90s Olympic Basketball Dream Team,” Reath said. “Kevin is a great secretary and I'm excited to work with them both [Sutherland and Gosar].”
CAS loses Senate seat, at-large senator added
Voters also decided to eliminate a College of Arts Sciences position in the Undergraduate Senate and replace it with another senator-at-large seat.
The Senate will now be comprised of five campus-at-large senators, one senator from each of the five colleges and four from each class.
When SG originally formed in 2005, CAS had the most number of students. That is no longer the case, according to a Senate resolution that proposed the referendum.
Some in the Senate made the argument that CAS encompasses the most diverse range of majors/minors, but others said that an at-large senator would represent the same constituency of students.
The second CAS senator position has remained unfilled since fall 2011.
Recently re-elected CAS Council President Abdallah Fayyad expressed his concern over this referendum in an email sent to the CAS listserv on March 26. In the message, Fayyad urged CAS students to vote against the referendum, citing CAS's underrepresentation in SG.
"If we get a large enough number against this referendum on Tuesday and Wednesday, then the rest of the AU community will finally hear us loud and clear, and start caring more about the College of Arts and Sciences," Fayyad wrote.
The Board of Elections will release the full results of class council and school council pending Student Activities’ approval of write-in victories. Most of the positions were empty on the ballot.
Staff writer Zoe Crain contributed to this report.
