Webster chess player Vasif Durarbayli, an Azerbaijani Grandmaster who recently helped the team clinch their fifth national championship, will be Webster’s next Student Government Association (SGA) president.
Durarbayli received 47.29 percent of the vote for president. He will succeed two-term president Caroline Wiley.
Durarbayli secured the win with 192 of the 403 votes cast in the election. His closest competitor was Scott Lunte, with 106 votes. Andrew Young received 92 votes and Timothy Fischer received 13.
The election was conducted online; all Webster University student email addresses received an email containing a link to vote for all SGA elections. Voting was open from April 17 through 20 and the results were announced April 21.
Zoe Burton was elected as the new ambassador of student inclusion with 62.42 percent of the vote.
The only candidate for vice president was Heather Hamilton, who was reelected with 91 percent of the vote.
Other uncontested elections were won by Shiloh Bradley (comptroller), Scott Lunte (sergeant-at-arms) and Rebecca Miller (student organizations liaison). Emily Mertz was elected as secretary with 72.69 percent of the vote.
Only one senator position in the election was contested; the Leigh Gerdine College of Fine Arts had three candidates for two positions. Colleen Jordan and Sophie Shugart were elected with 32.12 and 36.36 percent of the vote respectively. This full list of nearly elected senators can be seen below.
Senator – Graduate
Raj Rajendra Kumar Mehta
Dipti Pathre
Senator – College of Arts & Sciences
David Gunderson
Liora Rodriguez
Senator – School of Education
Kathleen Stevens (Write In)
Kathleen Schmidt (Write In)
Senator – GHW School of Business
Xiang Li
Seth Marek
Senator – LG College of Fine Arts
Colleen Jordan
Sophie Shugart
Senator – School of Communications
Caylin Thompson
Editor’s Note: An earlier version of this story did not reference the election of Zoe Burton as ambassador of student inclusion. The story has been updated to include this result; the Journal regrets the error and apologizes to Zoe Burton for the oversight.
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