iUnity reflects on race, prepares for term

After the thrill of victory, iUnity ticket members said they are excited to begin working for IU.

As the newly elected IU Student Association administration, iUnity will be inaugurated on April 15, provided the Student Body Supreme Court certifies the preliminary results of Tuesday and Wednesday’s campus election.

President-elect and junior Michael Coleman said he was “ecstatic” when Election Coordinator and senior Andrew Dahlen gave him the election results Wednesday.
“I just went crazy,” Coleman said.

Coleman said he will spend the next several weeks making sure he is visible on campus and assuring that his team is working together.

Coleman also said he was disappointed in the overall turnout of voters this election cycle, as he felt his campaign worked hard to reach out to graduate students and smaller student groups.

Current IUSA president and vice president for Administration elect, junior Peter SerVaas, said he was “relieved” when he heard iUnity had taken the election.

“I’ve always felt very strongly that having experienced people in IUSA will yield better results,” SerVaas said.

SerVaas said he is excited to continue working on Btown’s initiatives, since many are similar to iUnity’s platforms.

“I’m excited to finish everything that not me, personally, but that IUSA has been working on,” SerVaas said.

iUnity’s platform consisted of iSustain, which will push for the implementation of the Green Initiative Fund; iConnect, which will reach out to underrepresented student groups; iBike and iBus, which will build on the current administration’s campus bike rental and GPS bus tracking initiatives; iBreak, which will secure a fall break for students; and iSafe, which will add crosswalks on campus.

Chief of staff and sophomore Neil Kelty said volunteer turnout helped iUnity achieve victory.

“I definitely think we had a passionate group, I think that definitely helped our cause,” Kelty said.

Kelty said a passion for iUnity’s cause pushed volunteers and candidates to campaign harder and work longer. Kelty said his biggest job now will be putting iUnity’s staff in order before the administration takes office.

Those administrative staff positions could be filled by members of the defeated ticket Kirkwood.

“We want the best people,” Kelty said. “Because the Kirkwood ticket had really good people, they were a really strong ticket.”

Kelty said an invitation will be sent to Kirkwood executive candidates and should be distributed to other members of the campaign. The application process will be the same for every individual wishing to work with the iUnity administration, Kelty said.

Coleman reiterated he would be willing to work with Kirkwood campaign members, some he called “great,” but he also said some campaign members made the election more negative than he wanted it to be.

Multiple Election Commission petitions were filed during the election cycle by both tickets. A petition filed by iUnity against the election commission was also heard by the Supreme Court. A second Supreme Court petition filed by iUnity was dismissed before being heard.

SerVaas said he feels many of the court cases were blown out of proportion. He said he did not feel Kirkwood did anything leading up to the election that was very problematic.

Coleman said he thought the filings were necessary and educational and said the petition alleging the Election Commission did not reserve polling locations in an appropriate amount of time might help IUSA in the future.

“Hopefully it will help out the organization as well, making sure they’re on their p’s and q’s when it comes to reserving locations in the amount of time that’s allowed.”

Overall, Coleman said he believes the election was clean.

“I think it was a good campaign overall,” Coleman said. “I think all of the stuff that happened was necessary.”