The results are in and the new Student Government Association (SGA) President and Vice President for next year will be juniors Adam Gronewald and Belle Hartman.
Voting took place during week five, and by Friday, April 6, it was announced to the Augustana community via email that team Gronewold and Hartman won the election. With a total of 1,004 voters, Gronewald and Hartman took 585 leaving Walker and McCorkle with 419 votes. This year’s voting turnout was one of the largest in SGA history, and possibly the highest ever. “This year I think it was so high because we had such great candidates and a lot of people were involved,” Hartman said.
The Gronewald and Hartman team are ready to get started on the promises they made during their campaign. “We’ve got to plan senator elections and then follow up with what we actually said we would. The slogan that we ran on was ‘Don’t vote for words. Vote for action.’ and we mean that one hundred percent,” Gronewald said.
Gronewald and Hartman would like to sit down with Walker and McCorkle and see if their campaign ideas can still be brought to campus.
Walker will not be returning to SGA next year. In an email, Walker said, “my involvement in Augustana’s community next year has definitely changed a bit. I plan to work closely with the groups I’m involved with, but will not be serving on SGA. I resigned from SGA after the election due to certain social circumstances that are now in place.  I do not believe the environment will be a friendly one for me due to the emails/texts I received from the current executive board.”
By the end of the year, current President Allan Daly and Vice President Courtney Kampert will be stepping down, but there is no news yet on when that will be. Once Gronewald and Hartman take over, the first step will be to get their cabinet senate approved. On their cabinet-elect right now is junior Audrey Hogenkamp for Treasurer, freshman Carl Frasor for Secretary, and freshman Kaitlyn Watkins for Chief of Staff.
Watkins is excited for next year and being able to start the work that was promised during the campaign. “Our entire team is made up of some of the most hard-working, passionate and caring people that I know. We genuinely want to make Augustana a better place for every single student,” she said.
“I think the first thing that we need to do, as an organization at least, is come together and establish some core values so that when we plan our goals as an organization we all have the same mindset and we all are thinking in unison and then survey the students and fight for what they actually care about,” Gronewald said. According to Hartman in the next few weeks they will be meeting with faculty to try and get their plans set in stone, in order to have a plan set. She would like to start first on the response protocol, while Gronewald will focus more on the financials at first.
Hartman said, “Thank you for voting, and honestly even if you didn’t vote for Adam and I we’re really appreciative for the support of both candidates. The voter turnout really surprised me and it just makes me happy to know that more people are involved and know about SGA.”
Gronewald would like to tell the student body that, “I’m just happy that people are paying attention and I’d like to thank everybody who came out and supported us and I would just like them to know that we get started right away, and we’re very excited about that.”
 
Photo above: (left to right) Current Vice President Courtney Kampert, President elect Adam Gronewold, Vice President Elect Belle Hartman and current President Allan Daly meet to discuss upcoming senatorial elections and go over the transition of office. Photo by Kevin Donovan