As the polls closed and votes were counted today, Cole Stoker came out ahead of opponent Nikita Tewari in the runoff election for ASUP (Associated Students of the University of Portland) Director of Finance. Stoker received 54.63% of all votes cast, and Tewari received 45.36%.
“I'm super thankful for everyone's vote,” Stoker said. “Everyone that turned out to vote and all the people that supported me. I'm really happy to finally be able to get started on the work that I want to do and the changes that I want to make for both the budgeting process and for ASUP as a whole.”
Prior to this election, Stoker, a junior business major, served as the controller for ASUP. In that position, Stoker worked with interim Director of Finance and ASUP President Sage Taylor to manage ASUP’s accounts after the departure of the former director Joey Paumier. The ASUP controller handles most of the administrative work associated with ASUP finances.
“In stepping up into the director of finance role I'll be continuing to do a lot of those things,” Stoker said. “It's very much a linear step where the Director of Finance has a controller directly under them, and they work very closely intertwined.”
Stoker stressed the importance of transparency during his campaign and he looks forward to making good on that promise.
“The first step is going to be increasing club communication,” Stoker said. “A big step for transparency will be refining our list of club contacts and creating a list where we can talk directly with club leaders to get information out to them. The second step to that is going to be really cultivating a relationship with these clubs, so we can better understand what they need and what they want. Because when it comes down to it, I'm really going to be serving the clubs and their needs.”
Will Mulligan is a reporter with the Beacon. He can be reached at mulligan22@up.edu.
