News > April 3, 2008

By Elliot Engstrom | News editor

The tension was palpable outside of the Student Government office April 1 as candidates, media and onlookers awaited the results of the day’s Student Government elections. “I’m so scared right now,” said Saket Munshaw, candidate for the position of treasurer. “I love Wake Forest so much,and I’m concerned for its future.”

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President-elect Jermyn Davis, accompanied by speaker-elect Matt Triplett, talks by phone with WAKE TV after learning of his landslide victory in this year’s election for Student Government president. (Elliot Engstrom/Old Gold & Black)

Many candidates shared Munchaw’s sentiment, and as the results slowly trickled from the Student Government office, the tension slowly grew.

Jermyn Davis won a landslide victory for the office of president, with 77.7 percent of the vote.

Presidential candidate Sarah Walker was disqualified from the race for reasons that Student Government declined to give out following the election.

However, the Old Gold & Black discovered e-mails and text messages sent out by Walker on the day of elections and during the previous week, both of which are campaign violations. The e-mail contained a photo of Walker and a link to instructions on how to vote for her. It also encouraged recipients to make announcements for Walker during class, and to remind friends to vote for her.

The following day, Student Body President Whitney Marshall confirmed that text messages were involved in the violations, but declined to comment on the e-mails.

“She had multiple campaign violation,” Marshall said.

While these were certainly campaign violations, it is still unclear on exactly what grounds the elections committee disqualified her from the race. The committee can decide to either fine or disqualify a candidate based on their opinion of the severity of the violations. However, the sanctions do not affect vote totals.

Sarah Walker could not be reached for comment.

“We don’t really think it is pertinent to release exactly what she did,” judicial committee co-chair Joe Welker said of Student Government’s decision not to tell the public the specifics of Walker’s disqualification. “There were multiple campaign violations that were apparent and conclusive.”

As for other executive positions, Matt Triplett took the office of speaker of the house, with 54.9 percent of the vote.

“The speaker is in charge of the organization of Student Government,” Triplett said. “I want to make us a more student friendly organization.”

Saket Munshaw won the office of treasurer, with 62.5% of the vote.

“You voted the right way, I love Wake Forest,” Munshaw said. “I have exciting new plans in mind, and I can’t wait to implement them.”

Mary Kat Keith won the office of secretary in a tight contest, with 55.2% of the vote.

“I’m speechless, thank you,” Keith said.

“This is a very exciting time,” student body president Whitney Marshall said. “We have a completely new group of people, and we’re very excited to see what this group will do.”

The Old Gold & Black sat down with next year’s Student Government executive board to discuss both their thoughts on the election and their plans for the university.

“I have never been so excited in my life to work with such an outstanding group of people,” Davis said. “It’s a great balance. I’ve worked with most of them before in some form. One thing Matt and I bring together is our vision for openness in Student Government. We want students to know what’s going on.”

Speaker-elect Matt Triplett agreed with Davis.

“The speaker is in charge of the organization of Student Government,” Triplett said. “I want to make us a more student-friendly organization.”

Triplett’s ideas included a weekly Student Government report to the Old Gold & Black and an executive advisory committee to concentrate on finding issues that students are passionate about.

Mary Kat Keith, Student government secretary-elect, pulled off an impressive victory as a rising sophomore.

“I’m involved with a good many groups on campus,” Keith said. “My friends spoke well of me to people who didn’t know who I was. Also, I had a huge amount of freshman support. Without the people I know in other organizations, I would not have been albe to win.”

Triplett believes that Keith will be able to perform her job quite capably.

“Mary Kat is very well spoken,” he said. “Any lack of experience did not come through when she spoke.”

Davis believes that next year’s Student Government will be able to bring about real changes.

“I think students will feel they’re not being left in the dark,” he said. “We’re not here to be interpreters; we’re here to represent students.”

Triplett agreed.“ Hopefully you will see real policy changes, especially in the areas of registration and having majors printed on diplomas,” he said. Keith contains a great deal of excitement about her new job. “We’re really excited to work with the students,” she said. “We encourage people to arrange meetings with us.”

One of Munshaw’s primary goals is to work towards Deacon Dollars being accepted at non-university institutions. He also hopes to reform the current system that determines how much money SBAC receives to allocate to student groups each year.

“All of us talk a lot,” Davis said. “We’re bringing so many issues to the forefront. This is the change that this school needed.”