Junior Justyna Gorka will be next year’s SA President.
She and running mate junior Marc Haddad garnered 636 votes, defeating the opposing ticket — sophomores Ian Krager and Izzy Murphy — by 108.
The election results were posted on SA’s website after 1 p.m. Wednesday.
In a statement emailed to the Campus Times the day of the results, Gorka called on students to help her create legislation that would be representative of their needs, writing, “We need you, not just for the campaign, but for what the campaign represents; a better life for EVERYONE on campus.”
“We are grateful to have had the opportunity to discuss issues of importance to us and to our campus community,” Krager wrote in a statement posted to his Facebook soon after the election results broke. “We are so proud of the positive, issue-based campaign we built and we are even more proud of the diverse coalition who supported us.”
The Gorka and Krager tickets focused on similar issues — mental health, combating bias, and environmental sustainability. They differed, however, in their proposed strategies. On bias, for example, Gorka and Haddad proposed that all first-years be required to take a “First Year Experience” course on social issues. Krager and Murphy’s proposal focused more on improving UR’s response to bias-related incidents.
Another difference was that Krager and Murphy’s proposals focused more on researching and collecting data to decide on solutions, Gorka and Haddad emphasized government restructuring and student outreach as a path to change. A policy proposal document was open for any UR student to suggest changes.
The winning 5K challenge proposal was “Healthy Snack Counter in Douglass Commons (free healthy snacks during certain times of day” with 324 votes.
Senate and class council elections occurred over the same period of time. Gorka was also re-elected to her 2021 Class Council position. The following students were elected.
SA Senate
- Junior Amanda Liang (357 votes)
- Junior Rafael Ramirez (243 votes)
- Junior Sakhile Ntshangase (230 votes)
- Sophomore Victoria Liverpool (430 votes)
- Sophomore Lea Thome (381 votes)
- Sophomore Yaa Baker (293 votes)
- First-year Andre Tulloch (447 votes)
- First-year Syed Sabeet Kazmi (422 votes)
- First-year Devon Rogers (312 votes)
- First-year Imaan Salimi (306 votes)
- First-year Rusama Haque (268 votes)
- First-year Waleed Nadeem (249 votes)
- First-year Nadim Albilleh (245 votes)
- Junior Mike Arinarkin (227 votes)
2021 Class Council
- Alyssa Ho (208 votes)
- Justyna Gorka (166 votes)
- Akshay Sharathchandra (155 votes)
- Adam Inskip (138 votes)
- Rafael Ramirez (129 votes)
- Anna Gao (109 votes)
- Eden Thomas (102 votes)
- Andrew Bailey (85 votes)
2022 Class Council
- Victoria Liverpool (185 votes)
- Lea Thome (119 votes)
- Ruth Agwaze (117 votes)
- Brendon Tran (110 votes)
- Ko Ko (109 votes)
- John Maqui (107 votes)
- Grace Di Leo (88 votes)
- Sebas Cordero Velastegui (76 votes)
2023 Class Council
- Syed Sabeet Kazmi (216 votes)
- Waleed Nadeem (161 votes)
- Imaan Salimi (150 votes)
- Rusama Haque (132 votes)
- Claudia Garcia (128 votes)
- Elisa Stefanidhi (124 votes)
- Alex Fegler (120 votes)
- Soo Park (95 votes)
Editor’s Note (04/08/2020): An earlier version of this article did not include Gorka’s statement, as the Campus Times did not yet have access to it.
