By Lauren Beeman

“I told you all to leave your legacy at QU…and here it is,” Dean of Students Christine Tracy said to the newly elected Student Government Administration.

For the first time in QU history students elected two presidents and two vice-presidents for the 2018-2019 academic year. Votes constituted a statistical tie.

Students voted Mary Argana and Abby Moore as their SGA Presidents and Ernest Baker and Fallon Myers as their SGA Vice-Presidents.

This year, candidates for president and vice-president were paired together and ran on the same ticket. According to a statement released by current President Gino Grivetti, there were 89 votes cast for each ticket totaling 178 votes.

“I’m flabbergasted that this is even possible…but it happened for a reason. The students spoke,” Argana said.

Neither the new constitution nor the old one described what to do in the event of a tie, so before the official announcement, Tracy asked the four winners what they wanted to do moving forward.

“After deliberating with each other, our candidates for president and vice-president have agreed to serve as co-presidents and co-vice-presidents for the next school year,” Grivetti said.

Grivetti believes the current administration will need to amend the constitution to include instructions to prevent this happening in the future.

All eight students running for senate positions were also elected. They include: Abigail Dalke, Samantha Jacobson, Dayanara Abernathy, Trip Gibson, Lakin Hardy, Marissa Gonzalez, Jack Waddell, and Suzanne Schmitz.

However, the newly enacted constitution calls for 12 senators for a complete voting-senate. With four vacant seats, the first task the new administration will face is appointing more senators.

Grivetti’s statement also indicated that there were several write-ins for senator positions, and the new senate has the opportunity to decide how to proceed in that regard.

“It is history. We figured why not give it a try at the very least. I mean, the students spoke so who are we to deny what the students want,” Baker said.

The new administration is scheduled to take office on February 27, 2018, through a formal transition of power.

“Regardless of who would have won we would have been happy for each other. Obviously this is a crazy coincidence, but I definitely think it was something that was meant to be,” Myers said.

For the remainder of the year, the current SGA administration is planning to host a tree lighting ceremony to celebrate the Christmas holiday, and will continue with its regularly scheduled Tuesday night meetings until the new administration takes place.