Syracuse University and ESF students were provided with a tough choice this fall, and with three excellent candidates for president of the Student Association, the race was close. Duane Ford's platform focused on tuition, academic advising and diversity; Boris Gresely focused on reforming SA, reconnecting with students and redirecting SA’s focus; and lastly, Ivan Rosales directed his platform toward diversity, student engagement and academic excellence.
Despite a close race, Boris Gresely won the presidency. His major focus on the Student Association as a whole led him to become the first SA president elected to serve three consecutive terms, thanks to a new code that was approved by voters.
SU/ESF has saw an impressive voter turnout, with a grand total of 4,411 students participating; 1,764 of which were cast for Gresely.
Gresely emphasized change throughout his campaign, which began almost three months ago. “An Alliance for Change” is the motto he and his campaign team chose, with the hope that SU and ESF students would accept the idea.
“It’s my slogan: an alliance for change,” Gresely said in an interview with the NewsHouse earlier this week. “That is what we’re running with, that’s what we want to promote, because we really believe that having an alliance is how you promote change.”
The other candidates also expressed the need to reach out to more students on campus and create a bond between the students and their college government.
“I have an inbox full of emails from students,” Rosales said. “They all talked about what they thought was important and what they thought our strengths and what our weaknesses were. So when we came up with our platform, we really wanted to hone in on these different things we already knew what students cared about.
“When we go through and talk about diversity, student engagement, academic excellence, at least one of those applies to each student, if not all three.”
Ford also had a similar statement, concluding that students could relate to needs he had chosen to address in his platform.
“I think voters will like my platform because it applies to every single student and a large part of the aspects of life as a student at Syracuse and ESF,” Ford said.
However, now that the election is over, it's time for campaign rhetoric to be replaced with action -- and with three semesters of SA under Gresely's belt, expectations for the new president are sure to be high.
Photo by: Benjamin Cleeton
