UMD Student Association’s 2018 spring elections resulted in junior Mike Kenyanya winning re-election as Student Body President.

“It was awesome to have some great competition this year, it made election day a lot more eventful and showed better student engagement,” Kenyanya said.

Kenyanya overcame challenger junior Jake Griffiths to retain the presidency.

Kenyanya expects a busy term, filled with new initiatives and greater community involvement. One of his main goals is to improve landlord-tenant relationships.

“We spoke to the mayor just last week about forming a student organization committed to advocating tennant’s rights and solving landlord-tenant disputes, it’s a really important issue that we are looking at,” Kenyanya said.

Lindsey Girtz, SA director of public relations, spoke of the level of competition being high compared to past years.

"Elections were pretty intense this year. Often, our positions run uncontested and candidates do little campaigning,” Girtz said when reached by email. ”Besides our VP of Admin and Finance and CEHSP Senator, all positions ran contested this year including student body president.”

UMD SA also reached their voting turnout goal, according to Girtz, who hopes it can be even better next year.

“My goal was to reach 1,000 votes from the student body, we reached with a total of 1,037 votes,” Girtz said. “Next year, we are in hopes of exceeding this goal by even more.”

Girtz also applauded Kenyanya for the strides he has taken as student body president.

“For me personally, I have been in SA these past years and have watched students show great leadership,” Girtz said. “Mike is the same year as me and I have got to watch him transition into his role as president. He truly cares about this campus and gives 100 percent to help as many students as he can.”

A link to the final results can be found here.