Running Mates’ Mike Bird and Robert Corbridge were proclaimed the new Student Body Executive Council’s President and Vice President for the next school year on Friday March 11 at a mystery dinner held that night at the Taylorsville Redwood Campus.
The results were announced by current President Liu Vakapuna, who said later that night the moment was bittersweet for him.
“I hope that I can train the new Student Body President to the best of my ability, so he can continue to carry on the legacy,” Vakapuna said.
Corbridge was in attendance to accept the honor for both that night. Bird was unable to attend, however was reached via telephone. He said that he is excited and cannot wait to get started. Corbridge also agreed and said that they are looking forward to working for the student body. Both Corbridge and Bird won with more then 870 votes each. Erik Castaneda with 570 votes and his running mate Peter Moosman with 760 votes came in at a close second.
Corbridge said that he was really surprised when Vakapuna announced his name.
“I was in disbelief for about 10 seconds,” he said.
Corbridge also said he and Bird talked a lot about the direction of their leadership during their campaign.
“We really want to look at creating a diverse student senate, as far as which areas are represented,” Corbridge said. Corbridge said that will be one of the first things he and Bird will do.
He said that they hope to continue to reach out to the students and follow through with their campaign promises.
“It’s going to be an amazing year and we’re going to get a lot of good things going,” he said.
Bird and Corbridge hope to ensure that student tuition stay at a minimum and help to lower student fees. They also hope to create an inner-school transportation system or work with UTA to establish affordable public transportation for students.
Bird stipulated that while in office, he plans to create a textbook rental program for students – while at the same time working with the academic departments to keep published editions of textbooks for a period of three years – in order on keep costs down for students.
Corbridge said that they also plan to create a student senate better equipped and open to students’ needs and voices, including those students learning technical trades.
There was an overwhelming student approval for the constitutional change that will allow for the appointed position of Public Relations Vice President to be replaced by Publicity and Advertising Vice President.