Issue date: 4/9/09 Section: News

Student Senator Kyle Collum holds hands with newly elected Student Body President Michelle Murphy before receiving news about the election during the Student Senate meeting Wednesday night in the Arcola/Tuscola room of the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union. (Erin Matheny/The Daily Eastern News)

Click here to see videos of the officials describing their goals.


Michelle Murphy beat out Ron Jordan for student body president by a 375-321 vote.

The Student Government election results were announced during Wednesday's Student Senate meeting.

Murphy, the United Party of Students' candidate, is looking forward to next year. She will take office on July 1.

"I'm excited," she said. "I'm always up for a new challenge, but I will miss having a voice on the senate floor because my opinion is different from the others."

The student body president-elect said she has been campaigning this whole semester.

"Visiting the different groups was a challenge and seeing as many faces," Murphy said. "Winning by a few votes shows that it was imperative because one or two of those groups could have helped me win."

Jordan, the Students for Change candidate, said he learned a lot of negative aspects of Student Senate during the election process.

"I took a lot of things away," Jordan said. "There are a lot of petty things in the senate going on.

"There is a lot of stuff going along in the senate during election time. It's just not worth it to me, I'm OK with what happened. She wanted it that bad and got it."

Jordan was elected as a first term senator in December. He has another semester left in his term, but he might not return in the fall.

"Considering how some of the people who are causing the problems are still on the senate, probably nothing - I could tell you that," Jordan said.

Mark Olendzki (UPS) edged out Paul Reid (Change) 369-299 for student vice president for student affairs.

Olendzki said he wants to get a LGBT resource center on Eastern's campus during his term.

"My work starts now," Olendzki said. "I haven't taken office yet, but as vice president for student affairs elect, I'm going to get the ball rolling now. I still have a few weeks left on my senate term; so I will combine it with laying out the groundwork for my goals."

Olendzki said he doesn't know the estimated cost for the center. He said he would plan talking to federal, state, and local governments as well as charitable organizations to fund the project so students would not foot the bill.

Tyson Holder (UPS) defeated Brad Saribekian (Change) 395-278 for student vice president for business affairs.

Holder, a psychology graduate student and four-year member of Student Senate, said he has seen many things during his time on Student Government, learned from mistakes and knows how things work. Saribekian is a freshman.

When in office, Holder will help coordinate the boards effecting tuition and fees cooperation.

"I will get out to students and talk to the pertinent boards," Holder said. "Personally, I want to get as much student involvement on the tuition and fees committee and improve the lines of communication between the committee and the administration."

Scott Lambert (Change) beat Jose Alarcon (UPS) 380-304 for student vice president for academic affairs.

Eric Wilber (UPS) ran unopposed to retain student executive vice president. He received 623 votes.

Eleven senate seats were also filled in the election.

Elections Officer Ashlei Birch said 733 votes were cast. She said seven ballots were invalid from students voting twice or misprinted ballots.

Birch also said election complaints were also already filed, but the elections committee will not release names until possibly Friday.

Corrections added to data visualization



Bob Bajek can be reached at 581-7942 or at rtbajek@eiu.edu.

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