Of the 264 votes cast, Brown, a health education graduate student, received 202 and Shaun Hartley received 62. Both appeared as write-in candidates on the Feb. 13 ballot but neither garnered a majority of the votes last week. "I'm excited," Brown said. "I think it's an opportunity to get students talking about issues and concerns. The first thing I'm going to work on is trying to fulfill Senate positions for the departments that don't have senators."
Brown's platform, which she e-mailed to various student groups, said she will "S.T.R.I.V.E." for excellence. S.T.R.I.V.E stands for scholarships, technology, recruitment and retention, interaction, voice and visibility, and employment.
Her platform listed several goals, including improving the effectiveness and number of scholarships and increasing the number of computing and printing stations for graduate students.
The platform also said she plans to foster interaction between various graduate and professional programs, provide an environment for students to voice concerns and increase student participation at job fairs.
Hartley, a first-year law student, said he was not too surprised by the loss because he didn't campaign. "I'm upset that I lost, but it really wasn't that big of a deal for me, so I'm not crushed," he said.
Hartley said that although he doesn't know Brown very well, he is sure she will do a fine job as GPSF president.
He also said the most important issue that the president needs to address is the loss of scholarships for professional students. He said Student Stores recently stopped giving scholarships to professional students, but undergraduate and graduate students will still receive money.
"It's obviously unfair -- we buy our textbooks from Student Stores," he said. "I think this is the No. 1 issue that needs to be addressed."
Brown said she would like professional students to contact her if they are concerned about this issue. Board of Elections Chairman Jeremy Tuchmayer said he thought Brown won because she had a nice platform. "It was quite obvious that she probably did want the job," he said. "She put a great deal of thought into it."
