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Rachel Toraño-Mark / @carpeline / Daily Lobo President-elect Rachel Williams will be reacts after hearing she will be the new ASUNM president. Williams and her Vice Presidentelect, Jenna Hagengruber, ran with the Connect ASUNM slate.
Rachel Williams won the presidency of the Associated Students of New Mexico on Wednesday night. Williams, who ran with the Connect ASUNM slate, received 940 out of the 2,303 ballots cast on election day. She snagged the presidency from Forward UNM’s Isaac Romero, who garnered 742 votes, and Team You’s Colt Balok, who garnered 481 votes. Williams said she feels very fortunate to be elected as the next leader of ASUNM. “What a blessing,” Williams said. “This is an absolutely blessing that we were able to work so hard, and that hard work paid off.” Jenna Hagengruber, who ran alongside Williams in Connect, also won the vice presidency, receiving 983 votes. She beat out Team You’s Ayham Maadi, who garnered 682 votes, and Forward UNM’s Zeke Chavez, who garnered 486 votes. Hagengruber said UNM students can
Record turnout in election by Zachary Pavlik
The Associated Students of the University of New Mexico on Wednesday night celebrated a record student voter turnout, with more students voting than in the past five presidential elections. According to documents distributed by ASUNM’s Elections Commission, the number of ballots cast by undergraduate students this year was 2303, up from last spring’s count of 1521. Malika Ladha, executive director of the Elections Commission, said the voter turnout represented 10 percent of the University’s undergraduate students, whereas in the past, it has only averaged 7 percent.
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Connect wins ASUNM vote by Mychal Miltenberger
news@dailylobo.com @zachpavlik
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Voter turnout
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1552
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Ladha said this is a very positive result, and it represents a major achievement in the push toward greater student involvement. She said that this is a great sign for ASUNM, candidates and for the University community. “I think it definitely means that more students are trying to get involved with ASUNM, and they are trying to get a voice in who represents them,” Ladha said.
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expect nothing but great leadership going forward. “We are passionate, hardworking and honest,” Hagengruber said. “We truly, truly care about our students here, and we will stop at nothing to prove how much we support and care about them.” Hagengruber said no student should be hesitant to reach out to ASUNM under their leadership. “We want to be out there, we want to be public, and we want to be known, and we want them to understand that there is nothing to be scared of,” she said. “We are here purely to support them in every endeavor, we want every student here to succeed. So if they are scared, don’t be. We will come talk to them. We are ready to help them out.” Hagengruber said their enthusiasm for ASUNM makes them a “dream team.” Williams said their past experience with ASUNM will benefit them as the undergraduate student government’s next leaders. “There are a lot of tough questions that we don’t have to worry about learning because we already know,” Williams said. “We have learned a lot about the process of this university through all of that experience. There is a lot of fundamental stuff, and we already have that foundation, so we are just going to keep building on that going forward.” Williams said there will be an ideological shift within ASUNM under their leadership.
Election Results
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“That’s incredibly exciting. It’s exciting for the Elections Commission and for ASUNM as a whole.” Ladha said the credit for the record turnout cannot be given to a single group, but instead is shared by the candidates, the commission and the voters themselves. “I like to think it’s a mixed effort,” Ladha said. “We had some great candidates
“There is going to be a whole transformation in ASUNM,” Williams said. “Rather than this idea of them (students) coming to us, its going to be more about us going to them and working as a collaborative team.” She said she hopes to work with Romero, who is currently president of ASUNM, in the future, and that she hopes he will be a source of advice for her. “Isaac was great. He is great. He was a wonderful president, and he is going to end the year really strong,” Williams said. “I hope that he can give me guidance because he has done a lot of great things, and I really look to him for leadership in this position.” Despite not winning his reelection, Romero said the experience of being the president of ASUNM provided him experience that he could use in the real world. “This position has changed my life,” Romero said. “It has taught me so much about how to be relatable to people and understand students. That will help in my career with what I want to do. It helps me understand that you can’t trust everybody.” While he wasn’t elected president, Balok said the experience was well worth the effort. He said he is confident that Williams will do a great job in the position. “I had such a great time with this election. It was awesome,” Balok said. “Despite that I didn’t get elected, it was still great, and Rachel has the potential to do great things here. I am happy for her.”
President Isaac Romero Colt Balok Rachel Williams
# of votes
742 481 940
Vice President Zeke Chavez 486 Jenna Hagengruber 983 Ayham Maadi 682
see Turnout PAGE 3
Winning Senators
Kyle Stepp Slex Cervantes Abi Ritz Kyle Biederwolf Katherine Luce Travis Gonzales Nadia Cabrera-Mazzeo Tori Pryor Gabriela Eldredge Moises Ibarra
Helicopter crashes on roof of UNMH by Ardee Napolitano and Chloe Henson news@dailylobo.com @ArdeetheJourno @ChloeHenson5
Aaron Sweet/@AaronCSweet / Daily Lobo The tail of an emergency helicopter can be seen protruding from the roof of the University of New Mexico Hospital after crashing during takeoff Wednesday evening. The pilot of the helicopter was injured, but is in stable condition.
Inside the
Daily Lobo volume 118
issue 131
Stage names
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# of votes
845 695 684 677 613 608 602 598 593 585
After sustaining injuries following a helicopter crash on the roof of UNM Hospital Wednesday evening, the aircraft’s pilot is now in stable condition. UNM Executive Director of Communications Billy Sparks said at a press conference that evening that the helicopter had dropped off a patient and was departing at approximately 5:45 p.m. when it crashed. “The pilot did receive injuries, (but) his condition is currently good and stable,” he said. “The other two individuals are under
observation, but we don’t detect any life-threatening injuries at this time. About two minutes after the incident, the sprinkler system went off, and emergency responders helped the pilot and the other two passengers, Sparks said. He said the helicopter started spinning during takeoff and was unable to get enough air to leave the roof. Sparks said he currently doesn’t know what caused the crash. UNM senior Tyler Jackson said he saw the helicopter take off and heard an unusual noise. “It wasn’t like any sound I had heard from a helicopter before,” he said. Jackson said after the
see Crash PAGE 3
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