Allie Curtis was elected president for the 57^th session of Student Association, winning by more than 200 votes over the next-closest candidate.

Curtis, the current vice president, defeated three challengers. She ran against P.J. Alampi, Kyle Coleman and Iggy Nava.

“I really don’t have much a voice right now because I’ve been screaming,” Curtis said. “I ran a clear campaign and I couldn’t be happier with it.”

Curtis added that she has been “shedding happy tears.”

Curtis received 1,221 votes, while Alampi came in second with 937, Coleman third with 896 and Nava fourth with 773. There were 93 write-in votes.

Curtis credited her win to good campaign management. She said it was very similar to current SA president Dylan Lustig’s campaign.

Curtis was Lustig’s campaign manager when he was elected president last year.

“I applied a lot of knowledge I gained from last year’s campaign,” Curtis said. “I think experience had a lot to play into it too.”

She pledged to actively represent the student body and reach out to under-represented student organizations.

Curtis’ platform consisted of three main objectives: community involvement, more internships and jobs for students and active advocacy within SA.

As a representative of the student body, Curtis said she would make internships and jobs more available to students and recent graduates. She believes the process for getting internship credit approved should be a lot easier. More prestigious internships taken by students could help increase Syracuse University’s ranking, she said.

Curtis said she has increased student involvement in SA as vice president and would continue to work toward the goal of reaching 100 percent representation as president. Curtis said she also wants to better connect and re-engage the SU and State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry communities.

She added that she would continue to sponsor events like Impact Week, a week-long community service event taking place throughout this week that was put together by SA.

Unlike Lustig’s campaign where Curtis said she knew she would be vice-president, she is still uncertain as to who will serve as her vice president.

She said she has a “clear wide open cabinet” and is looking forward to the applications she will receive.

“There are so many competent students on campus,” she said. “Who knows, it could be within the association. I have a couple people in mind, but nothing concrete, nothing definite at all right now.”

She added that she is eager to “hit the ground running” and see SA grow during her time as presidency. This is a turning point, Curtis said, and will be the “greatest era for Syracuse University.”

Said Curtis: “I’m just so honored to be able to serve in this position, this has been my dream ever since I came to Syracuse University and the other candidates where highly capable, but the university has spoken and I couldn’t be happier serving them as president.”

 

Published on November 16, 2012 at 1:31 am

Contact Meredith: mhnewman@syr.edu | @MerNewman93