As the Student Association’s (SA) byelections came to a close on Friday, 11 nervous faces eagerly looked forward to the results for the three contested positions. Despite the midterms, a total of 1570 votes were cast across all campuses. The unofficial results were declared close to midnight and the results still need to be ratified by the SA board of directors. The SA funds The Dialog.

Riddhi Modi elected director of communications and internal

Riddhi Modi, a student in the strategic relationship management program, has been elected the new director of communications and internal. With 820 votes, or 57.5 per cent of the vote, she defeated her opponent Conrad Ozemoyah by over 200 votes with Ozemoyah securing 605 votes, or 42.5 per cent.

“I have met most of the board members as I have worked frequently with the SA. I am glad to be a part of the team,” said Modi, adding, “I feel extremely honoured after winning this election.” She said she looked forward to the challenge of implementing her agenda, to provide bursaries to international and domestic students, get paid co-op jobs and improve SA governance and accountability.

Ozemoyah said, “I’m still with the events squad in the SA. I still have the chance to work the changes I had in mind.”

Gracel Quibrantar elected Waterfront campus director

Gracel Quibrantar won the Waterfront campus director byelection with 46.8 per cent of the vote. Photo courtesy of the Student Association of George Brown College.

Gracel Quibrantar, a student in the practical nursing program, was elected the new Waterfront campus director. Winning by a significant margin over both her competitors, Quibrantar received a total of 212 votes while Goldie Vipulanandan finished with 148 votes. Former Waterfront campus director Jamie Jamieson came in third with 93 votes.

“I’m super excited! I really campaigned for this. I want to make sure there are more study rooms here,” said Quibrantar. “Food wise, $12 for a burger! I’m going to petition that with the school and faculty to get healthy living into our community. We’re such an important school but we have nothing happening at Waterfront. I want to make sure we have events in the space around the water,”

“She (Quibrantar) campaigned harder,” said Vipulanandan. “She deserves it. Our agendas were similar. Honestly, I feel there wasn’t effort on my part in campaigning harder. She did a great job.”

Mufasa Fashina elected construction and engineering representative 

Mufasa Fashina won the construction and egineering representative race with 134 votes. Photo courtesey of the Student Association of George Brown College.

This six-way race had an anticlimactic ending as Mufasa Fashina, a third-year student in the civil engineering technology program, won with 134 votes while runner-up Maple Quizon received 77 votes. Marc Grant-Vanasse was next with 74 votes, Audrie Williams had 67,  Uzzair Khan got 60 and Vincent Wong finished with 37.

“I wish to get down to making a survey, something like Survey Monkey so that I can hear from every student in the department,” said Fashina. “I’m really excited. I’ve been in contact with many members of the board including Rajat Sood, Naqeeb Omar, Tiffany White and Brittany DaCosta. I didn’t want to underestimate the other candidates, but honestly, I always felt I had a good chance.”

Quizon and Grant-Vanasse were both surprised by Fashina’s win considering he had not put up posters instead relying on a solid ground-game of getting out the vote.

“Tem (Mufasa) is a friend of mine and I’m happy he’s won,” said Quizon. “Without posters, he really got out there. He was really good in getting people to vote and that was the big difference.”

Grant-Vanasse had similar views, “I’m glad that he won. I’ve had the chance to work with him a little bit. He’s a great guy and this showed his networking skills.”

Health sciences & women and trans people representatives

Nikki Shumaker was acclaimed as the health sciences representative and Jimbo Cotoner was acclaimed the woman & trans people representative in uncontested races.

The seat for the satellite campus director and the student representative seat on George Brown College’s board of governors remain vacant as nobody ran for them. The SA board of directors can appoint a student to the satellite campus director position.