Jessica Asante-Tutu and Kathrina Noma won the Undergraduate Student Government election this past Tuesday. Credit: Courtesy of Jessica Asante-Tutu
Jessica Asante-Tutu has been elected president of the Undergraduate Student Government, closing an unusual fall election and opening a new chapter of student leadership.
With her running mate, Kathrina Noma, Asante-Tutu won a decisive victory over Oliver Griffith and Vaidehi More, capturing more than 70 percent of the vote.
USG elections normally happen in the spring, but due to procedural errors, disqualifications and university intervention, the Office of Student Life overruled the results and called for a re-election this autumn, according to prior Lantern reporting.
Both Asante-Tutu and Noma acknowledged the support they received from the student body throughout the election.
“We had just so much support from everybody,” Noma said. “It’s still surreal for me, and I don’t think it’s set for me fully.”
They pointed to their collaboration with student organizations and their commitment to listening and responding to student needs as a significant reason for their victory.
“Those check-ins for us were less about who’s going to vote for us and more about the genuineness we got from anyone who wanted to interact with us,” Asante-Tutu said.
Their campaign centered on a simple but consistent message.
“Our campaign slogan was ‘Empowering Buckeyes,'” Noma said. “We really carried that with us throughout our campaign.”
Griffith said that he feels a sense of relief being able to put this election behind them. Throughout his campaign, he said that he brought historically unrecognized groups to connect with USG and he was proud of his campaign for doing so.
“Our biggest strength was the willingness to connect to groups that have historically been left behind by the Undergraduate Student Government,” Griffith said in an email. “Our mission was to connect to groups that have been historically ignored like Greek Life and ROTC, and I think we brought some incredible conversations and ideas to the table.”
Griffith said that his campaign feels that they ran an election that would have won for them in the spring, but not this autumn. He also said that he feels that both his campaign and Asante-Tutu’s campaign failed to reach out to the majority of the student body.
“Since only 5.3% of the undergraduate student population voted, I believe the data indicates that neither campaign was able to find a way to resonate with the student body,” Griffith said. “When faced with the two candidates, approximately 94.7% of undergraduate students chose not to vote.”
Noma added that the team’s approach was rooted in listening directly to students.
“We want to empower people,” Noma said. “We wanted to hear the voices, so we sat down with student organizations, the student [organization] leaders, and leaders in our campus community. We said, ‘What do you want to see from us and how can we help you?'”
Asante-Tutu said her first priority in office will be assembling a team to help her serve the student body.
“We’re really excited for that,” Asante-Tutu said. “To see the brand-new faces and people who are ready to do the groundwork that we’ve been doing and will continue to do.”
The ticket emphasized that their immediate goal is to strengthen the bridge between USG and the student body.
“We’ve heard that students feel so disconnected from USG,” Noma said. “We want to remedy that day one of our administration.”
Though Griffith no longer has his senate seat, he said he plans to engage in student advocacy across campus and that he was honored that so many students trusted him to lead as a president throughout this race.
For more details and official election results, visit the USG website.
