University Student Life Committee chairElla Cheng ’16 won the Undergraduate Student Government presidential runoff election with 63.8 percent of the vote, according to an email sent by outgoing USG president Shawon Jackson ’15 on Friday afternoon.
Her opponent, Will Gansa ’17, took the remaining 36.2 percent of the vote.
Cheng will start her year in office at the beginning of the spring semester, in February.
Cheng is also a former staff writer for The Daily Princetonian.
Voter turnout was 15.2 percent higher than the voter turnout during the general election with 3,116 students casting votes, while the general election only drew 2,704 voters.
The runoff election between Cheng and Gansa was announced Nov. 28 after none of the three candidates in the presidential race won the majority of the vote.
In the first election, Gansa received 43.85 percent of the popular vote, while Cheng received 31.63 percent. Molly Stoneman ’16, the current USG vice president, came in third place with 24.52 percent of the vote and was eliminated from the race.
After her elimination, Stoneman endorsed Cheng and urged her original supporters to vote for Cheng, explaining that Cheng was the best choice to help move USG and the University forward.
“This is a strong vote of confidence from the student body that students still believe in USG,” Cheng said about her win. “This shows that students care about our future.”
In her campaign platform, Cheng said she wanted to switch USG’s focus from programming to policymaking because of her belief that the change would bring the organization’s focus back to students.
“I want to have more projects that students feel directly impact them,” she explained.
After she and Gansa were declared the two remaining contenders, she unveiled new items for her platform, including direct rebuttals to Gansa’s buzzword proposals, which included a mysterious concept, “bike reform,” riper fruit and waffle fries.
Cheng noted that the election seemed to have highlighted student discontent with USG and included propositions such as Chipotle study breaks and two-ply toilet paper in response to Gansa.
In an earlier article written by The Daily Princetonian, Cheng said she aims to show that USG can improve for the better.
“We need to start getting feedback now from the student body,” Cheng said.“The turnout was incredible. I’m proud of the school. This is a huge turning point for the University.”
She said that she plans to begin holding meetings immediatelywith students from around the University to get their perspectives on things that USG can do to improve its standing with the student body.
“I cannot emphasize enough how grateful I am for this. I hope that I can make a meaningful impact on students’ lives here through my work in USG,” Cheng added.
Gansa did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
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