The Associated Students of Oregon State University 2022-23 election concluded on March 4 with a 17.93% voter turnout, over double what it was last year.

Matteo Paola and Sierra Young won the president and vice president seats respectively with 1,541 votes, running on the campaign of #YourOSU.

“We are very excited and honored to know the student body has chosen us to represent them as their next president and vice president!” Paola said. “We have an open door policy both in our current capacity as president/VP elect and once we are sworn in. We love to hear what issues are most important to students. Connecting with [students] to discuss problems and solutions will be incredibly important in our work!”

According to Dylan Perfect, the current ASOSU vice president, when voting for single seat elections such as president, vice president,
Student Fee Committee chair and speaker of the house, the winner is decided by rank choice voting. Rank choice voting means voters rank candidates as first choice, second choice, third choice and so on. The candidate with the most first choice votes, if the majority, then wins the election. If there is no majority, they then use the second and third choice votes to determine the winner.

Paola’s duties as ASOSU president will include conducting all administrative affairs of ASOSU and budget, policy oversight, representing the students and following the ASOSU statutes. The president is also allowed to sign or veto bills passed by the ASOSU Congress.

The duties of vice president are to assist the president, oversee executive officers and staff, follow the duties of ASOSU statutes, and preside over the ASOSU Senate. Both president and vice president positions commonly participate in or lead campus committees or boards as well as their outlined duties.

Paola is a fourth-year political science major and chemistry minor on the pre-med track and has been involved in the ASOSU House of Representatives for two years. Currently, Paola sits on the Counseling and Psychological Services advisory board and Joint Projects committee where he has worked to establish two cultural centers for international and disabled students.

Paola’s running mate, Sierra Young, is a fourth-year student majoring in music and minoring in music performance. Young has been a part of the ASOSU Senate since summer 2020. She currently chairs the Joint student government committee and is responsible for rewriting the ASOSU constitution.

The team campaigned under #YourOSU and the platform hopes to expand the staffing and transparency of CAPS, bring more students to the SafeWalk program, negotiate carbon-neutral plans at a university level, develop survivor center reform and continue to work on increasing wages for students.

Paola and Young also placed an emphasis on their campaign to continue working with the SFC to increase student involvement in the budget process and increase funds to units that best serve students.

“Our primary power lies in the fee-setting process,” Paola said. “Where we think it is relatively easy to get things like higher wages and
build cost of living raises into student fee funded positions. Getting a living wage for all student workers is significantly more challenging. We look forward to working with groups like the Coalition of Graduate Employees and faculty union to form a powerful coalition, as well as organizing student workers to collectively fight for their rights.”

Voters eligible in the election are limited to students currently enrolled in a minimum of one credit on the Corvallis, Ore. campus, making 20,759 students eligible to vote.

Last year’s election had a turnout of 7.13% of the 21,248 eligible voters, while this year’s voter turnout jumped to 17.93% of the eligible voter base.

Paola said he thinks ASOSU outreach can still be improved.

“In order to fight for the student body, we need to first form easier ways of regular communication,” Paola said.

Other available positions on the ballot include ASOSU speaker of the house, SFC chair, four SFC at-large members, six seats in the ASOSU Senate, five graduate House of Representatives seats and 20 undergraduate House of Representatives seats.

Ballot measure 01.22, which proposed a new ASOSU Senate to act as a unicameral legislature, was also included in this election. The measure passed with 89.33% of voters voting for the adoption.

Candidates elected to each position are as follow: 

President: Matteo Paola  

Vice President: Sierra Young

ASOSU Senate: Jarrett Alto, Angelina Trillo, Noa Stoll, Kaitlyn Kim, Garima Kohli, Iman Jemal Adem

SFC Members At-Large: Gabby Gates, Emma Parkin, Gabriella Platt, Thomas Baty

Undergraduate House of Representatives: Sahana Shah, Kate Walsh, Erica Nyarko, Ocean El Dakhakhni, Lucy Hoang, Andrea Perez, Ellie Anderson, Caitlyn Olsen, Emily Erving, Francisco Hernandez, Adeline Rang, Lauren Ding, Sarah Theall, Alexis Minyard, Carissa O’Donnell, Payton Harrison, Emilie Krecklow, Henrietta Rutaremwa, Brynn M. Holmes, Samuel Misa

Graduate House of Representatives : Brian Ixtlahuac, Coquille Rex, Ankit Koirala

Speaker of the House: Madelyn Neuschwander

ASOSU SFC Chair: Joe Page