Roaya Higazi and Caleb Hineman are the next Undergraduate Student Government president and vice president. Credit: Courtesy of Jacob Chang
Students turned out to elect Roaya Higazi and Caleb Hineman as the next Undergraduate Student Government president and vice president Thursday in one of the highest election participation rates in USG’s history.
Higazi, a third-year in city and regional planning, and Hineman, a third-year in natural resource management, received 58.6 percent of votes, beating Sophie Ruttenberg and Ethan Wolf with 34.7 percent and Nicole Espinoza De Montreuil and Edward Donis Madison with 2.7 percent.
“Hopefully we get the chance to prove to everybody that this is not about resumes, this is not about just having our own agendas; we finally get to use what we have in our policy document and push some of that forward,” Hineman, also current parliamentarian of General Assembly, said.
Higazi, current vice chair of diversity and inclusion in Shared Governance as a part of USG’s Collaborative Leadership team, and Hineman received 5,057 votes, campaigning on a platform of access and affordability, excellence and equity, and student empowerment.
“I’m really excited for me and Caleb to welcome people into our organization with open arms, especially people who have never previously been affiliated with USG and people who thought USG wouldn’t serve them because of who they are,” Higazi said.
This election had the sixth-highest participation since the beginning of USG’s current structure in 1967, Namrata Pujara, a fourth-year in political science and economics and chief justice of USG’s judicial panel, said in an email.
Ruttenberg, a third-year in public management and current senator in USG’s General Assembly, and Wolf, a second-year in public management and a government relations committee representative in USG, campaigned on a platform of broadening USG’s engagement across campus.Their campaign received 2,997 votes and did not respond to a request for comment by the time of publication.
Espinoza De Montreuil, a third-year in marketing and former president of USG at Ohio State’s Newark campus, and Donis Madison, a second-year in science technology and environment exploration, campaigned on a platform of sustainability and affordability and received 230 votes. Their campaign did not respond to a request for comment by the time of publication.
Higazi and Hineman will succeed current USG President Kate Greer and Vice President Julia Dennen.
They will be inaugurated March 31.
