Empower placed 42 candidates on the ballot for Student Government, while only 13 independents ran against the party. Only 42 positions were available to the 55 candidates: president, vice-president, and representatives from each college. Following a steady campaign, Empower’s candidates won every contested office but one to Sally Waley, the only independent to win a challenged position.
Waley was elected as one of the six new Liberal Arts Representatives, receiving the most votes from the college’s constituency. Waley’s victory is especially impressive because of the support she raised with her own website, flyers and tabling – without the financial aid that comes from being a member of a party.
“If anything, I was expecting last place,” said Waley (right photo), “people were telling me if you can only get sixth place - you’re in. [So] when they said the sixth place winner and wasn’t me, I was so scared.”
The emcee continued to call out the names until he announced Waley as the top candidate for the position receiving 55.9 percent of the votes.
Waley’s victory is especially significant to her fellow independent candidates. In a grass roots effort to challenge Empower, many independents combined campaign efforts and networks. Some even talked about creating their own party.
“The independents formed an underground meeting [because] they were angry with the party system,” said Jake Lewis, the new Fine Arts Representative that ran uncontested as an independent, “they had a coalition pushing for changing the system.”
The students joined together via the web, tabling in pairs on campus, and attempting to create similar platforms to build unified momentum.
“[We] started contacting each other, using Facebook groups, and making our goals the same,” said Zachary Kinnaird, an independent who ran but was not elected for Two Year at Large.
Many independents protested against what they deemed an unfair monopoly in Student Government driven by unfair advantages in funding and organization.
“As an independent, you have a budget of up to $500,” Lewis said, “but on a ticket, you can pool your money.”
Keshav Rajagopalan (left picture), the new Student Body President and leader of the Empower ticket, sees the situation in a different light and desires a more competitive race next year.
“There have been multiple tickets in the past years, [but now] there’s an apathy on campus. We need to foster leadership,” said Rajagopalan.
Rajagopalan has been involved in Student Government since his freshmen year and credits Empower’s successful campaign to his early start establishing himself in the system and the organization of his campaign.
“Declaring early hurts [independents],” says Liam O’Rourke, Empower’s Speaker Circuits Coordinator, explaining independents or students not previously involved in Student Government often do not plan far enough in advance to generate a party before a January 22 deadline.
Empower began in the summer of 2007. Rajagopalan and Vice President Frankie Shulkin sought out qualified students to build their ticket and campaign management. Many independents, however, had not yet even thought about running, much less organizing a ticket.
Despite this year’s controversy over the single ticket election, both independent and Empower candidates shared the same objectives to continue improving UT’s Student Government. "SG," as students say, started the E-bus, placed a student on the Board of Regents, launched plans for a new Student Activity Center, and created the UT Boot Scholarship Fund, that will award $2,500 to students based on need and merit.
“Our main goal is embodied in reaching out to students, working with them, getting them more involved in areas, building relationships, [and] hearing the perspective of people not involved [in Student Government],” says Rajagopalan.
In addition, the Empower ticket aims to extend hours of operation for libraries and campus study areas, push providing free HIV and STD tests for students, faculty and staff and increase funding for the university from the State Legislature.
“[We want to] put a face on Student Government,” said O’Rourke, “we are more than a cardboard cutout in the Co-Op.”
Waley’s ideas reflect similar ideas. “My platform is to create community within the College of Liberal Arts and to support student initiatives,” she said.
Waley plans to accomplish this by pushing for a study space specifically for Liberal Arts students and providing more channels for communication between Student Government and students.
Most independents, however, will not be able to see their goals come to fruition. Even with their efforts and opposition to the party system, multiple defeats discouraged independents.
“It’s rough because we all were expecting something that didn’t happen. It’s very disappointing for [our] amount of work,” said Waley.
There are still opportunities for independent competitors to be involved in Student Government and their momentum that started this year to reform the elections could produce a more competitive election environment next year.
Until then, Waley will serve on Student Government as the only elected member who was not on the Empower ticket. She commented, “They all ran under the same platform, so there will be a lot more support for ideas. We’ll have to see what happens.”
