Michelle Murphy was re-elected to serve a second term as the student body president Wednesday by a narrow margin of 38 votes over opponent Nahder Houshmand, making her the first candidate in Eastern history to be consecutively re-elected to the position.

“It’s cool,” Murphy said. “It’s really, really cool. It’s difficult to keep your popularity and approval ratings high, and it’s neat to be able to say I won for a second time.”

Before Olivia Brauer, director of the elections commission, read the election results, Houshmand told student senate members he disagreed with what he viewed as a failure to remain partial on behalf of Isaac Sandidge, student speaker of the senate.

Houshmand said he was concerned about the role Sandidge played in helping the PULSE party campaign and said Sandidge’s position on student government dictates that he must remain neutral to party affiliations.

Houshmand said he was especially disappointed that Sandidge not only helped the PULSE campaign, but did so on the premises.

Fellow opponent Tommy Nierman recently established and headed the new VOLT party and earned 213 student votes.

Murphy said she was nervous to run against two stiff competitors and clutched the arm of Jarrod Scherle, current vice president for business affairs, while Brauer read the elections results.

“I thought I did a pretty good job (this term),” Murphy said. “There was no reason to pull me out of office. I had a group of people who stuck by me no matter what, and I received a lot of letters and support from people on campus.”

Murphy said her first order of business to address as the re-elected president is ensuring the new executive board is on he same page in terms of accomplishing goals for the greater good of the student body.

“There were times when the (executive) board had so much animosity, it was almost impossible to get anything done,” Murphy said. “It was such an unnecessary evil, and it took a huge toll on the (executive) board because we didn’t work well together, that wasn’t a secret.”

Murphy will be joined in the fall by the newly elected executive board, comprised of Aaron Wiessing as student executive vice president, Jennifer Prillaman as student vice president of academic affairs, Ashley Hoogstraten as the student vice president of business affairs and Daniel Vincent Rolando as student vice president of student affairs.

“I like this board,” Murphy said. “I wish my whole party could’ve gotten on, but they’re all qualified people and I think they’re all good.”

She attributed her success to helping the student government save money by cutting what she called ineffective programs like Safety Week, which required thousands of dollars and attracted few participants.

“It’s not that I don’t care about safety, but those problems have already been addressed and the program was becoming unnecessary and redundant,” Murphy said.

She also said she was able to save money while planning for First Night.

Describing the hardest part of campaigning to be maintaining composure, Murphy said the race gets personal.

“You don’t know how necessary it is to have your mask and mouth guard on from the beginning, because people are throwing punches, and it’s not going to be pretty,” she said. “People will get mean, but it’s so important not to stoop to their level. It’s hard when you hear them say things about you that are so false.”

Upon adjournment of the meeting, Murphy said she looked forward to celebrating with her friends and family.

Erica Whelan can be reached at 581-9742 or elwhelan@eiu.edu.

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FALL 2010 SENATORS

Zach Caskey

Roberto Luna

Ryan Larimore

Jarrod Scherle

Hakeem Smith

Ed Hotwagner

Colleen O’Sullivan

John Poshepny

Jason Sandidge

Charles Jaques

Anna Nasinska

Blake Pierce

Chris Arnholz

Michelle Murphy awaits the unofficial election results, presented at the end of Wednesday’s student senate meeting. She was re-elected for the position of student body president for her senior year. Murphy beat Nahder Houshmand by 38 votes. (Chelsea Grady

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