“It’s been an amazing process to go through, to talk to everyone who’s involved in the Y — alumni members, current co-chairs and current committee members — and it’s been so exciting to get all of their ideas, and I feel really excited about the opportunity to now bring those ideas to life,” Eaves said.
Buchanan said she was humbled by her election.
“I just feel really honored to be able to serve this place that I love so much in the coming year, and just very flattered by all the co-chairs and Y members that thought we would be good at the job,” she said.
The election was restricted to dues-paying Campus Y members who had registered or held current membership between May 2015 and Jan. 20, 2016, although members who met these qualifications could also request a fee waiver to be eligible to vote.
Current Campus Y co-president Vishal Reddy, who is a member of The Daily Tar Heel’s editorial board, said the candidates started developing their platforms during winter break.
From there, candidates submitted their platforms and applications to an elections board. If they were approved, the candidates went public and had two weeks before election day to campaign, Reddy said. Reddy said the job of the co-presidents is to oversee approximately 30 Y committees, work with faculty and staff to organize Y programs and organize members in collective actions.
“Those three responsibilities are the big things, but through that we also try to embed a self-reflective, committed, ethical, passionate sort of culture within the Y,” he said.
Reddy said of the 2,000 to 3,000 Y members, 500 to 600 were eligible to vote, and expected voter turnout was around 300 members. He said this was proportionally similar to turnout for the student body president election.
