News Editor

After two intense weeks of campaigning, Mike Kwon and Jennifer Sanchez have been elected as the next Associated Students Incorporated president and executive vice president. Kwon, who is ASI’s current executive vice president, garnered 68.28 percent of the campus vote.

He campaigned against Ricardo Perez, ASI’s vice president of external affairs. Sanchez, who ran against three other candidates, received 58.55 percent of the vote. Her nearest competitor was Laura Castro, who received 33.96 percent of the vote.

Kwon and Sanchez’s platform centered on bringing a university garden and food bank to campus to combat food insecurity, working with clubs and organizations to improve student life and introducing an outreach program to better market ASI’s accomplishments to the student body.

Both candidates campaigned as a team and endorsed each other for office. Kwon said he was thankful for everyone who voted in the election, including those who voted for his opponent.

“I honestly feel grateful to everyone that voted,” Kwon said. “I wanted to beat last year’s voter turnout of 25 percent in this election, but I’m grateful that students voted regardless, and it’s just an amazing feeling for me.”

While Kwon will not begin his term as president for another few weeks, he said he plans to reach out to executive officers to prepare initiatives for the fall quarter.

“Throughout the summer and the fall quarter, I plan on communicating with the executives officers earlier on – as fast as I can – so that we can come together and make sure we get something initiated in the fall quarter so that when new students are coming in, they already feel included,” Kwon said.

Election Results

Of the remaining four executive positions, none featured a margin of victory closer than 30 percent.

Mirka Sanchez defeated Christina Swanson in the race for vice president of programming, Sanchez, who is ASI’s current director of campus pride, received 66.67 percent of the vote.

Swanson is also a member of ASI; she serves as director of educational events.

Additionally, Anish Mohan was elected as vice president of university affairs. Running against Joel Rodriguez, Mohan received 71.58 percent of the vote. Mohan’s platform included creating a campus app, enticing more food vendors to campus and advocating for an environmentally friendly campus that is also welcoming of student diversity.

Two positions – vice president of finance and vice president of external affairs – were unopposed. Parmeet Sidhu, ASI’s current director of clubs and organization outreach, was elected as VP of finance, while Danielle Kinsey, a sophomore economics major, was elected VP of external affairs. Kinsey currently does not serve on ASI.