Cal Poly students will have a new “direct student liaison” next year in Kelly Griggs. The art and design senior was elected as 2009-2010 Associated Students Inc. president with the platform of being a link between the administration and the student body.
Griggs was elected president after Wednesday and Thursday’s election, with a voter turnout of over 20 percent of the student body. Due to a problem with the outside vendor who was contracted to count the votes, a numerical breakdown of the votes was not available by press time.
The results were announced at 8:50 p.m. Thursday evening before a crowd of approximately 200 students in the University Union Plaza during May Mayhem, a school-sponsored activity night.
Griggs said after the announcement that she was glad her message resonated with the student body.
“I think I really did my research and that has to do with the leadership positions I’ve held and I was able to build my platform off the issues that I feel the students really want and connect with,” she said.
“I know that I had a lot of support, great friends and a really good network of people (helping me). It was a fun process, a fun campaign and it’s just very surreal.”
Griggs also said that the campaign and election process was the greatest experience of her college career.
“I just had fun with it,” she said. “I felt like every night I would come home. my face would be tired from smiling all day. But it was such a good process; it was honestly the best educational experience that I’ve had so far at this university.”
Current ASI president Angela Kramer said after the elections results were announced that she looked forward to continuing to work with Griggs, making her transition to student body president as easy as possible.
“This is why we do elections in May,” Kramer said. “It’s a month-long transition process. Everything I’ve worked on this year, I’ve worked really hard to make sure we can transition well.”
Kramer said that she was “very proud” of Griggs, adding that she believed Griggs would be a true representative of the student body.
“Kelly is great, she has a phenomenal personality, is a great listener,” she said. “This position takes a lot of learning, a lot of growing, and I think she’s going to grow into it quite well. I really do.”
This comes as a surprise to me. How did the candidate with the worst (and most expensive) t-shirt design win? This is a mockery of Cal Poly’s election process. Historically, candidates with the best t-shirts who gave out the highest quantity for free won the election. Now, Griggs with her heinous yellow shirts that she tried to charge money for has one the election. I am simply stunned and in a state of disbelief.
congratulations kelly
You are basing the decision process on a t-shirt? I think the fact that people donated money to her campaign really gave them a reason to want to wear her shirt with pride. Rather than walking through the UU and collecting some "freebies" the people that wore her shirts were in full support of her. I am sorry that it has come down to a t-shirt for you to realize who the best candidate was.
The idea of asking students to contribute money to her campaign in exchange for t-shirts with her name on it is not an economically sound one. I saw the huge inventory of shirts she had on hand, and my guess is, at $2 a pop, a lot of students decided not to purchase the t-shirt. So, after it is all said and done, I am guessing Griggs has a surplus supply of t-shirts on hand…hmmm, what good is 100 ugly yellow t-shirts after your campaign is over? Not much, I would say. My point being, even though Griggs won the election, she might have done better if she made her shirts a less obnoxious color, and handed them out for free, because any t-shirt she did not sell is a waste of money at this point, and her main goal should have been to get as many t shirts out as possible to promote her campaign. And let’s be real…the ASI president doesn’t mean much to the student body of Cal Poly. I’ve been here for 4 years, and I cant name one thing an ASI president has done to improve my life here at Cal Poly. We all know it is a glorified figure head position that people want to put on their resumes.
It was actually a recommended donation, and students that did not want to donate did not have to pay. Also, at the end of the campaign, there were no shirts left over at all. It would pay to know the facts beforehand, and while you are sitting at home writing about issues you know nothing about, she has just become the President of the student body.
Way to go Kelly!!! It is sad to know that only 20% of the student body voted…
In response to the comments of S. Paul Rhodes…
So what if Kelly asked for a $2 donation for her shirts? Her shirts were bright yellow and they stood out. It helped get her name out there, which is why nearly every ASI candidate, ever year, makes T-shirts. Granted a lot of students wanted a shirt just to have them… trust me. I had many students come up to me asking for a shirt without even talking to me and I often asked myself “Do you even know what you are representing by wearing my own shirt?” This was a CAMPAIGN, and Kelly didn’t win because of her T-shirts. In addition, every candidate’s campaign cost about $2000 this year, and so you can’t blame the girl for wanting to make some money back.
Her T-shirt is not a mockery of the ASI Election process. The low voter turnout is. It’s embarassing that only 20% of the student population voted and that hardly anybody takes the time to actually research the candidates. I really hope you weren’t one of those people.
ASI President means a lot to Cal Poly. I would encourage you to research what the ASI President actually does. I’m sorry if in your years here at Poly, the ASI president hasn’t done anything for you. But that’s not the job of the Prez. ASI Prez represents the entire student body…not one individual. Also, have you addressed the Board of Directors, or met with members on Executive Cabinet, or spoke with any of your previous ASI Presidents to even see what they can do for you? That’s something to consider.
Regardless of the election results, I will support Kelly during her term. Kelly Griggs is our ASI President elect. It’s time to move forward and continue the progress that has been made thus far. And, I can speak for Jon, Kelly, and myself when I say that we are damn proud of our campaigns and the experience we have been afforded. Out of nearly 17,000 students only the 3 had the guts to do what we did.
Jacob,
Perhaps the low voter turnout is correlated with the crappy t-shirt designs offered by every candidate this year. I think the basic platform of any candidate running in the popularity contest should be to provide as much cool shit as possible to students. Why else would I take 5 minutes out of my day for something I don’t care about?
I got nothing from any one of you candidates, and none of you guys said anything impressive to boot… Oh, lets promote “diversity on campus” (haven’t heard that BS before)…or how about, lets make the budget process more transparent (nobody is going to take the time to read the budget). Who cares? Why should I care? We already established that ASI presidents do nothing to improve the life of any student, instead, as you said, they “represent the students of cal poly.” Translation = they don’t do anything important enough to generate a voter turnout about 20%.
The bottom line is, the ASI president really doesn’t do anything important. You guys talked about adding more lights off campus (hmm, who is going to pay for installation and maintenance of these light…nobody!)… You guys like to regurgitate a bunch of lofty unrealistic goals that all amount to fluff and bullshit.
Yeah…only 3 of you won because the rest of Cal Poly has better sense than you guys. You spent $2000 on a losing campaign? Congratulation for having the balls to try, and in the process wasting a good chunk of your parents’ money.
S. Paul Rhodes has spoke.
S. Paul Rhodes,
All of the candidates, myself included, invited all students to engage in discussion about the future of ASI and the University. Specifically, Kelly and I met with nearly 40 clubs on campus to get student input and feedback. If you did not have the opportunity to meet with us and share your concerns about how “ASI has done nothing for YOU” then I apologize, however we made ourselves available. I don’t feel that any of our goals were unrealistic. Had you taken the time to research our plans and spoken with us, I’m sure all candidates would have been more than happy to educate you on how we can carry out our objectives.
One thing that all students need to know is that the term of ASI President is only 1 academic year. While many of the things ASI does takes 2-3 years, we have to start somewhere. To create an effective plan, no smart president would promise immediate results. Delayed gratification is something we must all learn by experience.
We ran for ASI President because we are involved, experienced, and care about Cal Poly. It’s all relative to the individual, but the money and the effort was well worth what we got out of campaigning.
Oh and by the way, my parents funded 10% of my campaign. The other 90% was paid for out-of-pocket by myself. Thank you for your discussion.
She got the greek vote.
S. Paul Rhodes,
Your infinite words of wisdom have enlightened us all! Of course the ASI elections mean nothing, and why shouldn’t we base our votes on how much free swag we get?
Wow, you are quite the pessimist, S. Paul Rhodes. Maybe you are trying to offer a new and interesting perspective to what ASI should do for our campus, in which case I would love to know your platforms and how you believe the position of ASI president could be improved.
Also, I am laughing (really hard) at your comment on voter turn out. If you think that voter turn out has something to do with the ASI president not doing anything important enough for students to show an active interest, then I guess we shouldn’t have a President of the United States of America. A little over half of the voter population voted in the 2008 election and look how much money was donated to their campaigns? And I would hardly call former President Bush’s loss a “waste of his money.” Maybe more people should start making “ugly” yellow shirts and ASKING for donations because it obviously did the trick.
Furthermore, if you don’t think promoting diversity is a prominent issue then you are obviously in the dark about the most recent hate crime preformed on campus.
Jacob, your experience in running for an election will be a valuable one, to say the least. Having the “balls” to actively pursue bettering our campus is noteworthy and will benefit you in the long run.
She has one the election? You’re a good 5 or 6 years from graduation, aren’t you?
I definitely agree that Kelly Griggs won only because of her t-shirt design and campaign. This had nothing to do with her abilities as ASI president or leadership experiences! But I still hope she does well as our president and doesn’t screw cal poly up the ass.
Oh, and one more thing. Another reason Kelly Griggs won is because she is highly involved in the Greek Life here at Cal Poly that has taken control of our school.
Two things before I go off and graduate…
The greek vote means very little to the majority of campus. It was significant in this election because of the turn-out. My plea is that the Cal Poly Greeks please stop thinking of themselves as being on some higher level like this is still high school. No one at Cal Poly is jealous of you.
Kelly Griggs WON the election. She did not ONE the election. You know who you are and you are pathetic.