The Best Team, comprised of president Zophia Brobio, vice-president (programming) Hyder Naqvi, and vice-president (administration) Daniel Pollak, won the Rideau River Residence Association (RRRA) election with 184 votes on March 23.
Unified came in second place with 153 votes. The Home Team is in third place with 111 votes, despite their disqualification. Can’t Stump the RRRA came in fourth place with 55 votes, while Integrity First came in fifth place with 31 votes. Total voter turnout was 551, with 13 abstaining and 4 spoiled ballots.
The voter turnout is an increase from the 316 ballots cast last year.
Chief electoral officer (CEO) Julia Parsons said she expected the increase in voter turnout given the number of students running.
“I wasn’t actually sure where it would be—however I thought there would definitely be an increase from last year, just by the amount of slates running,” Parsons said. “I think that indicates more people were interested in the job, so therefore it indicates more people are more willing to go out and vote this year.”
The five slates that ran is also an increase compared to the one slate that ran last year.
“I think the work that the current executives . . . have gotten more people involved in RRRA as we’ve seen an increased voter turnout and we’ve also seen an increase in . . . people wanting to run,” Parsons said.
Naqvi said he feels one of the reasons his slate was elected was because of the diversity of the team.
“Most of the teams were from [public affairs and policy management] or journalism but at the same time Daniel and Zophia are in their own programs while I’m in engineering,” Naqvi said. “There were no other engineers running so that provided us with a huge base of people that were looking to vote for someone that was like them. They found a connection.”
The slate focused their platform around accessibility, affordability, and comfort.
“Our main thing is, we want to extend resident move-out deadlines,” Brobio said. “Lots of people have been complaining about that. Currently people only have 24 hours after their last exam. Really inconvenient, especially for international students,” she said.
“We want to replace the MacDaddy’s with a Burrito Shack since it isn’t currently gaining much revenue, as well as creating a delivery system from Abstentions and Oasis to a person’s floor,” she said.
Naqvi said sometimes students find out about events on campus too late.
“Some of the things I want to do is find news ways of reaching out to students that will allow them to come in and know when things are going to happen and be there,” he said.
He cited updates on social media platform such as Facebook and Twitter, as well as Snapchat, as ways to reach students more effectively.
One of the ways the slate will look to bring affordability to students is through transportation, Naqvi said.
“We contacted VIA Rail during our campaign to see if we could get some affordability in terms of transportation for students,” Naqvi said.
“There’s no exact terms discussed yet,” Pollack said. “I’m looking for ways to try to increase affordability whether it’s through free giveaways, or potentially subsidized rates.”
“I’m looking forward to working with [VIA] and trying to get any initiatives that would be beneficial to students,” he said.
The slate will also look towards expanding and building upon the efforts of past RRRA executives.
“Graham a couple years ago got rid of the phone in people’s rooms, and that saves students a lot of money—obviously one of the main points of our platform was affordability,” Pollak said. “We are going to look to make campus more affordable.”
