Juniors Nicole Gans and Jackie Zupancic earned 37.2 percent of the votes to win last week's three-ticket race for Student Government Association (SGA) president and vice president at Saint Mary's.
Gans and Zupancic will take office as president and vice president, respectively, April 1.
"[The election] was so exciting," Zupancic said. "It was great to see our hard work in campaigning pay off, and to see how much support we had. All of the candidates did such a great job, and everyone was very well qualified, so it was a very tough competition."
Gans and Zupancic said their major goals are those that will directly impact the student body.
"The major goals of our platform were to help Saint Mary's become more ecologically friendly, increase pride in Saint Mary's and help develop better communication of policies and procedures, such as the allotment process," Zupancic said.
The pair said they want to focus on both the student body and the individual.
"Through each initiative we start, we want to focus on how it will bring the student body together and how it affects each individual person," Zupancic said.
Gans said the coming weeks will include training from the current SGA president and vice president, seniors Rachael Chesley and Laura Smith, to gain some perspective before entering office.
"[Zupancic] and I will be shadowing and meeting with [Chesley] and [Smith] to learn more about their individual roles and responsibilities," Gans said. "We will also be talking and meeting with current board members to get feedback on what they thought about the past year, and any changes they would make."
In their campaign, Gans and Zupancic said they wanted to improve technology on campus, continue the current renovation of Le Mans Hall basement, better communication between students and their government, and increase community involvement, according to the ticket's website.
Even though there will only be a little over a month left once they take office, Zupancic said the two do have a couple of goals they would like to see accomplished by the end of the academic year.
"We would like to see at least one printer in one dorm, which is what the current administration is working on accomplishing before turnover," Zupancic said. "It would be great to continue working on that until the end of the school year."
Additionally, they hope to continue work on Le Mans Hall basement until May.
During the summer months, Gans said the two will prepare for another SGA retreat that was started by Chesley and Smith and get organized for the coming academic year.
"[Zupancic] and I hope to become as prepared and organized as possible over the summer by having all of our plans laid out in complete detail," Gans said.
Overall, the two said they are excited to enter office.
"We are extremely honored to be serving the Saint Mary's student body and we hope that the students view us as a resource for support, guidance and information," Zupancic said.
