Jon Barnhart elected 54th Student Association president
Jon Barnhart was elected Syracuse University’s Student Association president early Friday morning, in the first contested election in two years.
In SA’s 54th election, 2,587 students or 18.5 percent of full time undergraduate SU and State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry students voted, said Alec Sim, a member of SA’s Board of Elections and Membership. He said this was the lowest voter turnout in the three years he has been on the election board.
Barnhart defeated his opponent Hari Iyer with 1,989 votes or 78.3 percent of the 2,539 votes cast for president. Iyer received 489 votes for president or 19.3 percent. Sixty-one write-in votes were cast, Sim said. Barnhart will take office Jan. 25, SA’s first meeting of 2010.
Barnhart walked out of Ernie Davis Hall’s main lounge Friday to take a phone call at 12:15 a.m. His supporters waited in anticipation until Barnhart walked back into the room to announce the results.
‘Thank you guys for all your hard work, and congratulations – because we did it,’ he said.
Sim, who informed Barnhart of his win, said Barnhart was very relaxed when he found out. ‘And knowing Jon, that is stereotypical him to be very calm and collected,’ Sim said.
Barnhart will hold open interviews to determine who he will name his vice president. He will also hold interviews for all committee chair positions. While the junior political science and international relations major has certain people in mind for positions, he said he wants to make the most qualified decisions possible.
Even though Barnhart’s term does not officially begin until January, he said he and his campaign manager, Neal Casey, will start planning his transition tomorrow.
‘It’s a big weight off the shoulders, but as soon as I wake up tomorrow, it starts over again as far as transitioning,’ Barnhart said.
Barnhart ran on a platform of safety, inclusion for students and laying the groundwork for lock-in tuition. With the rest of the assembly, he has also pushed for a separate day off for students after SU announced the reinstatement of classes on SU Showcase. He doesn’t plan to pursue one initiative over another and said he hopes to tackle as much as he can during his term.
‘It’s not going to be tackling one issue at a time,’ Barnhart said. ‘I laid out a big platform and I’m well aware of it.’
Iyer, a junior in the Martin J. Whitman School of Management, awaited election results at a friend’s apartment Thursday night. He said he had planned his concession speech two weeks into his campaign.
‘I started this thing from scratch, from ground zero,’ Iyer said. ‘Jon had a tremendous network established. He had probably close to 100 percent of the votes at that point. Working uphill, I’m very proud of everything I’ve accomplished.’
In his time campaigning, Iyer pushed for financial transparency from the university in regards to how student tuition is spent. Despite his loss, Iyer said he was happy that he got his message across and that students voiced support for him. ‘Another very large portion of students were more comfortable with someone who kind of knows the ins and outs of this organization,’ he said.
During his three years at SU, Iyer attended one SA meeting in October. He said he knew little about SA procedures, but planned to study them if elected. After his loss, Iyer said he doesn’t foresee any involvement with SA.
‘That’s because our methods are very different. I think there are organizations that I would be much better suited for with the initiatives that I’m trying to carry out.’
Iyer said though he was counting on a high voter turnout from students who may not normally vote, he was happy for Barnhart.
‘This is something he really wanted,’ Iyer said. ‘And because he really wanted it, he is going to pursue his responsibility with all the gusto necessary to carry out the goals that he set out to achieve.’
Voting for the 54th session of SA began Monday and ended Thursday at 11:55 p.m. By early Tuesday morning, SA had surpassed the required percentage of votes – at least 10 percent of SU and ESF students – in order for the election to be official. The majority of votes were cast Monday, Sim said.
‘It’s exciting to see so many students out to vote and that they made the right choice,’ said Casey, SA chief of staff and Barnhart’s campaign manager.
Jeff Rickert, a sophomore accounting major, was elected comptroller for SA’s Finance Board with 2,022 votes or 78.16 percent of votes. He ran uncontested. The comptroller oversees how the student activity fee is delegated to recognized student organizations. Rickert has served as a member of the Finance Board for two semesters.
Larry Seivert, current SA President, said he looks forward to working with Barnhart to ensure a successful transition. The spirit of competition was great for the election, he said. Seivert, who completes his term in December, said approaching the end has been ‘absolutely bittersweet.’
Barnhart said he never expected to run for SA President when he joined the assembly at the end of his freshman year. He began to think about running for president at the end of last semester when the assembly was experiencing internal issues, he said.
Barnhart made sure to thank those who helped him during the election. From setting up speeches, hanging posters, making videos and getting the word out to students, he said he wouldn’t have won without his team.
‘It was a lot of fun and we all worked very hard,’ he said as he fielded phone calls from friends and family after his win. ‘There’s no way I would be here without these people sitting around me.’
– News Editor Bethany Bump contributed reporting to this story.
Published on November 13, 2009 at 12:00 pm
