Appalachian student body re-elects incumbent Carson Rich and new VP Abby Hamrick

Incumbent Student Body President Carson Rich was re-elected alongside Vice President Abby Hamrick on Wednesday, winning with almost three quarters of the student body votes.

Rich, junior theatre arts major, serves as current student body president, and Hamrick, junior social work major, currently serves as his chief of staff.

In order to win the election, a ticket had to receive 50 percent of the votes, plus one vote. Rich and Hamrick received 1,301 of 1,780 votes, for approximately 73 percent of the vote.

Sam Murray and Wes Rawles, the only competing ticket, received 479 of the votes for an approximate 26 percent of the vote.

Voting was available to students on Appalnet and closed at 8 a.m. Wednesday after allowing students the opportunity to vote for a week. Campaigning began on March 16.

Of the voters, 1,231 voters were female and 575 were male, according to CSIL’s election results.

Rich said he believes the last time Appalachian SGA had a two-term president was in 2008.

“I’m just really happy to know that this year there will be less of a learning curve and more progress and action,” Rich said. “I think this next year is going to be a really good one. This sounds very cliche, how they say, ‘it’s always dark before the dawn’ or ‘it gets rough before things get better,’ but we had a rough year and I think we’re going to learn a lot from it.”

Rich said he thinks the stand-out aspect of his and Hamrick’s platform was their desire to expand the counseling center.

“One of the first things we’re going to want to work on is diversity in the counseling center,” Hamrick said. “Also, working with legislatures on the equality with UNC-appropriated dollars. I think we’re just going to be able to hit the ground running with things we’ve already started working on.”

Rich said although there may have been challenges in regards to reacting on and handling difficult situations the student body has been presented with, he wants to move forward while taking into account diverse opinions.

“We want to make sure that even though we’re two people, we’re able to effectively adhere to over 16,000 that come from many different backgrounds,” Rich said.

Although Rich and Hamrick consider the past year at Appalachian a difficult one, they said the challenges have better equipped them to be fully prepared to take office together for the 2015-2016 year.

“I think as far as us and SGA, I think it can only go up from here,” Hamrick said. “I think we’re at a place where we can only rise if we do the right things. If we really work hard enough, then things are really, truly going to change for the better.”

Story: Nicole Caporaso, Senior News Reporter

Photo: Alex Gates, Photo Editor