In a run-off election, Sam Schroeder and Zane Grizzle were elected as the 2024-25 student body president/regent and vice president.
The pair received 649 of the 1,218 votes cast in the run-off election.
“It was really close,” Schroeder said. “We won by 80 people. I was relieved that it was all over because a month is a long time to campaign. It was a good feeling, though. I was glad that we won. I was proud of all the work we did.”
A run-off was held after none of the three pairs of candidates received the required 50% plus one of the votes to win in the first round of elections.
Schroeder and Grizzle qualified for the run-off election after receiving 578 votes in the first round of elections. Temo Molina, 2023-24 student body president, and Kimberly Gomez also moved on to the elections after receiving 447 votes in the first round. Tanner Jonas and Olivia Lawless, who received 222 votes, did not.
Molina and Gomez received 569 votes in the run-off.
The new president and vice president will be sworn into office at an inauguration at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 16.
Schroeder said his main goal as student body president is to increase communication with students.
“I want students to be able to come up to me and be comfortable telling me their problems and knowing that student government wants to hear whatever concerns they have or any ideas that they have for improving the student body and student experience,” Schroeder said.
Schroeder plans to connect with students through weekly or bi-weekly newsletters, implementing office hours, lessening his commitments, spending time in the union and actively talking with students.
The pair’s other goals build on community, reinvestment and progress, including initiatives such as improving mental health resources and reinvesting into student organizations. Schroeder said he also wants to give opportunities to those who aren’t represented.
As a member of student government for the past two years, Schroeder said he’s learned that there’s “never enough time” to get everything planned done.
“But I want to do my best to get as many of the things I promised done as possible,” Schroeder said. “I want to advocate for everything I said I did. I want to fully commit myself to what we did. I want to bring more people together in terms of student government and in terms of our campus as a whole.”
Grizzle said he is looking forward to the experience.
“I get a lot of enjoyment and fulfillment out of imploring people to do more, be involved more and gain more from the stuff that they do,” Grizzle said. “And I feel like with Sam and I in office, we are gonna be able to give everyone the resources and support they need to be able to do that.”
Both rounds of the election saw an increase from last year’s 524 voters. The first round had 1,334 voters and the second round had 1,218.
Renae Zimmer, adviser of student government, said she was excited about student engagement with voter turnout. She said she thinks there were many factors in the increase of votes.
“Last year, Temo [Molina] ran uncontested so your voter turnout is probably not going to be as high as when you have two people running against each other and actually going out and campaigning,” Zimmer said. “And then in combination with that, we had the debate on March 4, and that had probably close to 115, 120 show up for the debate, which again, I thought was really good turnout to support both candidates.”
Members of Schroeder and Grizzle’s cabinet, who will also be sworn in at inauguration, include:
- Emma Nolan – chief of staff
- Genesis Acosta – secretary of student organizations and affairs
- Ally Sedlacek – secretary of community relations
- Joey Orellana – secretary of the treasury
