At 2:38 a.m. this morning, Michael Ceci got a visit from the AMS elections team and Kingsley Chak, outgoing undergraduate student trustee and now AMS president-elect.
They told Ceci, ArtSci ’09, that he would be the next undergraduate student trustee to sit on the Board of Trustees.
And then they doused him with champagne. After he cleaned himself up, Ceci spoke about his campaign and his election win.
“I feel amazing. We ran an executive-level campaign with one-third of the budget and one-third of the man power,” he said.
“We got our message out there, a message of thought-out ideas, realistic goals, and we’re going to come through.”
At press time, the numbers of votes and percentages each candidate received was unavailable at press time.
However, AMS Chief Returning Officer Ilana Ludwin said the order in which each candidate was eliminated in the preferential balloting system was as follows:
Stephanie Kenny was eliminated in the first round, Nigel Chapman in the second, Hillary Smith in the third, and Chi Yan Lam in the final.
Ceci said he intends to work at getting the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario to appoint four possible board positions for students.
If it was up to him, he would like to see the four candidates he defeated sitting with him as student trustees. “I will work towards getting those four extra positions from the Lieutenant Governor for students, so the people I campaigned against will me very soon,” Ceci said.
He said his first task as student trustee will be to learn the intricacies of the position from Chak.
“I will be transitioning with Kingsley, learning the ropes and implementing some of the things in the platform,” he said.
Lam, ConEd ’09, held his head in his hands and spoke quietly on the phone as he received the news from the election team.
Afterward, he spoke to the Journal.
“I had a good time and I learned a lot. I really hope whoever gets it really cares about Queen’s.
“It was a very clean campaign. It was a more competitive race than I could have anticipated.”
Lam attended Team CMM’s party with Kenny, ArtSci ’09, and Chapman, ArtSci ’10.
Chapman said he feels fine with the results.
“It’s as expected. Student politics had their way. I’m satisfied to try and throw my hat in. Dealing with a process that’s not about platforms or qualifications is frustrating,” he said.
“I think Ceci will do a really good job. He deserves it; he worked hard.”
Kenny expressed her dismay at the news of her defeat. She did not receive a phone call about her defeat because she doesn’t own a cell phone.
“I ran a very clean and fair campaign. I ran it on a personal level. I collected all my signatures one by one, by shaking hands,” she said. “I think that’s how you should win an election—person to person.”
Kenny said she hopes Ceci steps up to the challenge of the job.
“I hope he’s listened to everyone else during the campaign. I hope he doesn’t stop talking to other people just because he won,” she said. “I hope for the sake of all undergrad students that he can gain respect from the board and students can have the voice we deserve.”
Chak, ArtSci ’08, applauded all five candidates for their dedication to their campaigns.
“All five candidates were great. They all did their homework and all of them deserved to win,” he said. “But I have no doubt [Ceci] will do a great job.”
He said Ceci was a ionate and capable candidate.
“His issues echo the students’ issues.”
Smith, ArtSci ’08, was unavailable for comment.
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