KEARNEY – Evan Calhoun and Nicholas Stevenson are the new student body president and vice president, respectively, at the University of Nebraska at Kearney.
They were elected Thursday following two days of campus voting this week in a runoff election. Student government inauguration is April 7 in the Nebraskan Student Union Ponderosa Room.
As student body president, Calhoun, a junior business administration and marketing major from North Platte, will serve as the official student body representative to the University of Nebraska administration and the public. The president has the power to pass or veto legislation passed by the Student Senate. Stevenson is a junior journalism major from Columbus. Both men are members of Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity.
Calhoun and Stevenson said they consider themselves “blessed” to have won a hard-fought contest, and pledged to enhance relationships and partnerships with organizations campus-wide, improving dialogue between students and administrative units, and services to students.
Calhoun said he aspired to become student body president since arriving at UNK as a freshman.
“I’m passionate about UNK,” Calhoun said. “The university has given so much to you, that you want to give back. I didn’t want to look back on my college career and say ‘what if I had done that?’”
Calhoun has been involved in student government, as secretary of Student Organizations and Affairs, and secretary of Community Relations, in the fraternity and on KLPR radio. His future goals include becoming a CEO. Stevenson has been involved in Interfraternity Council, has worked on the Antelope and KLPR staffs, and said his future goals include working at ESPN or as a mixed martial arts analyst for sports media.
The runoff election occurred this week because there were three tickets running for student body president and vice president, and no majority was received by any party during last week’s election, resulting in the runoff among two parties. Calhoun and Stevenson received 494 votes to Natasha Angulo and Ryo Suzuki’s 385 votes in the runoff.
In addition to Calhoun and Stevenson, students were elected to UNK Student Senate. The organization is the legislature for the student body, and students are elected from each of the UNK academic colleges.
Student Senate has the power to pass legislation for the campus, approve new student organizations, appoint student representatives to UNK Faculty Senate and other administrative committees, and perform other duties concerning student issues of concern.
Students are elected to represent their respective colleges. Those elected are listed below by college:
College of Business and Technology: Jesse Zwiener of Albion, Natalie Jansen of Central City, Russell Tappy of Merino, Colo., Nolan Hollibaugh of Rapid City, SD
College of Natural and Social Sciences: Dallas Doering of Trenton, Drew Thompson Aurora, Courtney McClellen of Lincoln, Cody Masters of Kearney, Paige Whalen of Kearney
College of Education: Landon Killion of Waco, Mallory Ritthaler of Fremont, Tyler Cogswell of Omaha, Carrie Hanson of Kearney, Madeline Maloley of Omaha
College of Fine Arts and Humanities: Abraham Hermosillo of Cozad
University College: Rachel Ann Flaugh of Hartington
-30-
Source: Jamie Emal, 308.865.8909, emaljl@unk.edu
