Students First! won an overwhelming majority of council seats in the 2008 undergraduate student government elections, taking the presidency and six additional spots.
The slate, which currently only occupies one seat, will have seven council members next year: president, internal vice president, Academic Affairs commissioner, Facilities commissioner, Financial Supports commissioner and one general representative. This gives Students First! a clear voting majority on next year’s Undergraduate Students Association Council.
Bruins United was unable to repeat last year’s electoral success, this time winning only two general representative seats. Five independents, including current External Vice President Jesse Melgar, ran unopposed for their positions.
The Green Initiative Fund, which will raise student fees to fund green efforts on campus, passed by a margin of 3-1.
“We’re feeling quite ecstatic. I think we’ve all seen a newfound optimism in the student body,” said first-year political science student Rio Scharf, who worked to pass the initiative.
Homaira Hosseini, the president-elect, said Students First!’s huge victory was a result of new coalitions built during the campaign.
“Regardless of whether we held USAC offices or not, we continue to work for things we cared about,” Hosseini said.
Bruins United general representative candidate Joey Hernandez, who did not win a seat, said he was proud of fellow candidates Natalie Gonzalez and Monica Kohles for winning the position of general representative.
“Monica and Natalie worked hard and deserve the jobs,” Hernandez said.
He added that he was concerned about undergraduate student government, but said he would be back “stronger than ever” next year.
Navid Pour-Ghasemi, who ran for Financial Supports commissioner with Bruins United, said all of the candidates gave it their best.
Evan Shulman, the internal vice president-elect, said he felt “amazing” about the results.
“I’m so excited that the university has decided to put students first,” Shulman said.
Gregory Cendana, last year’s Students First! presidential candidate and its current campaign manager, said his slate will “repair the trust that was broken in student government.”
“After a long hard year, after USAC did not put students first, we are now a majority with a president,” Cendana said.
Bruins United presidential candidate Matt Sandler said it was evident that Students First! had expanded its base to include more of the UCLA community and mobilize supporters.
Shortly after results were announced, current President Gabe Rose had words of reassurance for a group of somber Bruins United supporters.
“We’ve never lost a single election in the past three years … but we’ve achieved more in those years than any other slate has,” Rose said.
He added that “everyone loses sometimes” but urged supporters to look ahead to next year.
“At the end of the day, we’ll be back. I promise you that,” Rose said.
Victorious Bruins United General Representative-elect Kohles said she would continue to fight for platform positions from the losing candidates.
“Instead of three platform ideas, I’ll have 30. No way these ideas will die,” Kohles said.
Hosseini said she hopes her slate’s new majority would work effectively with Bruins United.
“If everyone is there to serve the students, we’ll all get along,” she said. “There will be no problems.”