by Rachel Rippetoe |
Sophomores Brandon Rivera and Tsikata Apenyo have been elected next year’s ASUP president and vice president after a runoff election this week. Stephanie Tucker was also elected ASUP communications director in the runoff.
It was a close race as Rivera and Apenyo came in just 16 votes ahead of opponents Krizchelle Magtoto and Anthony Ng. With a 26.19 percent voter turnout to the election, Rivera and Apenyo received 50.66 percent of the vote while Magtoto and Ng received 48.49 percent.
Apenyo said that the pair campaigned right up until 7:59 p.m. Wednesday night, when the election ended. Rivera said he was expecting Magtoto and Ng to win the election, with endorsements from clubs like the College Ecology Club.
“All day today, I was in class shaking,” Rivera said. “I was nervous the whole time thinking, ‘We’re behind, we have to keep pushing.’ (Magtoto and Ng) did a hell of a job. Their campaign really put us on our toes the whole time.”
Rivera and Apenyo both credit the win to their friends. Apenyo said it was hard to get friends who had never cared about ASUP in the past to vote in two consecutive elections.
The newly elected ASUP leaders say that they’ve already started work on their platform of “food and parking.” Apenyo said that he and Rivera are planning to work with Kirk Mustain, general manager of Bon Appetit, this summer to find food carts willing to set up in the academic quad.
According to Apenyo, although Portland’s weather conditions make it so that weekly food carts on campus are not a feasible option, Mustain will allow food carts from other businesses on the quad every couple of months, particularly when the weather is nice.
Despite their specific platform, Rivera and Apenyo stress that other issues the campus has faced will be treated with equal importance.
“I know mental health is a big thing here — a lot of people have said it’s a big thing,” Rivera said. “Just because we were campaigning on food carts and parking doesn’t mean we don’t care about that.”
Apenyo said he and Rivera want to work closely with the Black Student Union and Active Minds next year to make improvements on campus on racial and mental health issues.
Apenyo said that they are also open to working with Magtoto and Ng next year on the ideas the candidates had expressed in their campaign: transparency, health and sustainability.
“Just because we compete against them doesn’t mean that we don’t like them,” Apenyo said. “I have a class with Krizchelle and she’s like the nicest person ever. We obviously want to work with them and will reach out to them.”
Rachel Rippetoe is a reporter for The Beacon. She can be reached at rippetoe18@up.edu.
