Juniors Brett Rocheleau and Katie Rose won Wednesday's election for student body president and vice president with 57.3 percent of the 2,382 votes, vice president of elections for Judicial Council Caitlin Ogren said.
Rocheleau and Rose ran unopposed in the first single-ticket election in student government records.
Ogren said 42.7 percent of students who participated in the election abstained from voting for the Rocheleau-Rose ticket.
"Fewer students voted than in last year's election," she said. "More students abstained than in last year's election."
In last year's primary election, 163 voters abstained, representing 4.04 percent of the total vote.
Despite this decrease in voter turnout, Rocheleau said he looks forward to hearing students' opinions about campus issues.
"It's exciting to see what people think about our vision, how they want to add to it, the different goals and things they'd like to work on," he said. "And being able to communicate with them and seeing how they take our vision and how they help us grow is going to be the most exciting time for me."
Rose said she expects to enjoy working on the initiatives she and Rocheleau developed for their platform.
"I'm pretty excited to see some noticeable changes in student life and for students to be excited about those changes and to keep being engaged in working with us on those," she said.
The incoming administration hopes to advocate for the student body in matters of consequence and convenience, Rocheleau said.
"We want to hear the pulse of the students as well as act on it," he said. "We want to hear what drives them, what's really important to them, and we want to advocate on those issues."
Student body president Pat McCormick extended his congratulations to Rocheleau and Rose.
"I think that Brett and Katie are uniquely capable of advancing the vision of the kind of student government that we've built this year, and I'm excited to see how they build it even bigger in the year to come," he said.
Before handing over the reins to Rocheleau and Rose on April 1, McCormick said he will take advantage of the upcoming transition to culminate the work of his administration.
"I think that there are a number of different ways that we're hoping to do that, and I'm really looking forward to the coming weeks and to doing our best to support Brett and Katie as well as they transition to these roles," McCormick said.
Rocheleau acknowledged that some aspects of his time as student body president would likely be difficult.
"I would say any administration faces challenges along the road, but that's why we want to build a strong team behind us — so when we do face any difficulties that lie ahead of us, that we as a team can come together and work on trying to overcome the obstacles that we face and in the end overcome them and accomplish our goals," he said.
Rocheleau said he wanted to thank his supporters as well as everyone who participated in the election.
"From everyone who voted for us … even for those who abstained, just to still vote, I think that's important," he said. "We're looking forward to getting the next administration started, keeping what Pat and I laid out last year and hoping to advance the vision."
