After a week of casting votes, California State University, Monterey Bay’s (CSUMB) Associated Students (AS) officers were chosen for the 2021 to 2022 academic year. To announce next year’s leaders, AS hosted a Results Release Party on April 12, where several AS members came together to meet their new officers, including the new 2021-2022 AS president.
AS Senior Coordinator of Governance and Operations Joanna Iwata said a total of 831 students voted during this election, which was a great turnout. Elections Commissioner Claire Larson kicked off the event with a shout out to the AS student officers and professional staff.
Larson thanked student officers for “giving their time during a hectic Spring semester.” She said it was undoubtedly challenging for each candidate to campaign for their position during this unforeseen time and that their efforts “did not go unnoticed.”
Following Larson, Dean of Students Leslie Williams conducted a short speech before Larson announced the new officers. “(I) Appreciate you taking the time to run during this difficult time,” Williams said. “You are signing up for a year which will continue to have challenges.”
After welcoming in the attendees of the release party, Larson began to announce who was elected into office.
First announced was the College of Business senator, taken by Christine Callen. The Colleges of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences senator was announced next, with Alin Hett filling the position. Christian Chan won as the vice president of internal affairs and David Castillon-Mendoza secured his position as the vice president of external affairs. David Ledesma was the winner of the vice president of finance position before announcing the winner for president.
Larson addressed Cobey Davis and Victoria Bartindale-Guffey, the two students running to be AS president. Bartindale-Guffey was chosen as president, who smiled wide when discovering the victory.
“(I want to) thank the CSUMB student body for electing me and thank Cobey for running as well … this is a very humbling experience,” she said.
Now the new AS officers are ready to take on the new year. At the end of the results release party, Larson reminded attendees that there are still vacant AS positions available, which can be applied for at https://csumb.edu/as.