Skip to Content, Navigation, or Footer.
Friday, March 29, 2024
The Observer

White, Moran win SMC elections

Sarah Catherine White and Mary Pauline Moran were elected as Saint Mary's 2004-05 student body president and vice president Friday. White and Moran will take office April 1.The ticket received 58 percent of total votes Thursday, beating out Sarah Brown and Michelle Fitzgerald, whose ticket received 38 percent of votes. Four percent accounted for abstentions in an election where 50 percent of the student body voted, a turnout considered successful by election officials."I am extremely pleased with the student body's involvement in this election," said elections commissioner Nicole Haeberle. "Fifty percent of the campus voting is well above national averages for colleges and shows that all of the candidates captivated the attention of Saint Mary's women."Haeberle added that this year's election exemplified the strides made by Saint Mary's student government in recent years. Most notably, this election marked the first time in three years that more than one ticket ran for the student body presidency. In addition to White-Moran and Brown-Fitzgerald, Shay Jolly and Veronica Saabedra rounded out a group of candidates going into the primary election, Haeberle said.Both White and Moran agreed, citing a respectful election with tough competition."It's an honor," White said. "We're delighted and thrilled to see that so much of the student body supports us. It's exciting to see the school take interest in student government through the election.""It really revitalized things on campus for people to know that they have a choice," Moran said of the competing candidates.Before taking office, White and Moran will shadow current student body president Elizabeth Jablonski-Diehl to better understand what their roles will include. The shadowing process will consist of attending both administrative and student government meetings and evaluating the leadership demonstrated by past administrations. The ticket said that their first priority upon taking office is to welcome new College president Carol Ann Mooney on behalf of the student body. This goal will be followed closely by their second priority to form a Board of Governance."We truly realize that we're not the only ones who will be doing all of the work," White said. "It's everyone who is interested and wants to get involved."Confident in their leadership capabilities, White and Moran look forward to representing students' voices in a year filled with internal and external change on Saint Mary's campus."I think Sarah Catherine and Mary Pauline will do a fabulous job transitioning into their new roles and taking the lead in furthering student government," Haeberle said.