The Inspire campaign has been declared the preliminary winners of the election for the next president and vice president of IU Student Government, according to preliminary results Thursday. The Inspire ticket includes president Rachel Aranyi and vice president Ruhan Syed.
Aranyi said she and Syed are excited to begin advocating on behalf of the student body.
“I want to thank the election commission, everyone who voted, the whole Inspire team,” Aranyi said. “I also want to thank Defy for the great work that they put in this campaign season.”
Voting ended at 10 p.m. Thursday, and both campaigns were informed of the results. Senior and IUSG Election Commission Chair Quinn Gordon informed the IDS of the preliminary results via text. He said the results will likely be finalized by the IUSG Supreme Court by Sunday evening or Monday morning.
Gordon said 5,371 students voted. The voter turnout was 55% higher than last year, he said. The IUSG Election Commission will release the vote breakdown by ticket after the Supreme Court certifies the election.
Presidential candidate for the Defy campaign Madeline Garcia congratulated Inspire on its campaign in a text to the Indiana Daily Student. She said she and vice presidential candidate Arianna Hoye hope to collaborate on policy work both inside and outside IUSG in the future.
“This was a very exciting and empowering experience, and we were thrilled at the high voter turnout,” Garcia said.
The Inspire campaign’s primary policies include pushing for a tuition freeze, a $15 minimum wage on campus and discouraging investment in fossil fuels.
Aranyi said she hopes to start implementing her campaign’s COVID-19 relief efforts. She said the first thing her administration needs to do is pass a preliminary budget through IUSG Congress.
At a debate Tuesday night, the Inspire campaign discussed advocating for diversity and inclusion, prioritizing mental health initiatives, combating food insecurity, sustainability and its response to COVID-19.
Syed said while the COVID-19 efforts are the most pressing for the campaign to start working on, he is personally excited to implement environmental policies to make campus more sustainable. He said they also want to follow through with their petition for a partial tuition refund.
“We’re definitely going to start advocating immediately like we’ve been doing throughout this entire campaign,” Syed said.
He said he and Aranyi will be talking with incumbent IUSG student body president Isabel Mishkin as they approach this transition.
