THE UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT body has spoken: They have elected Kate Hudson to be their vp student affairs for the 2012–13 school year. Preliminary results of the Student Federation of the University of Ottawa (SFUO) elections show Hudson beat competition Tasha Peters by 506 votes, with Hudson receiving 2,416 votes and Peters 1,910. Voter turnout in the election was reported to be 15 per cent.
Immediately after learning she won the election, Hudson summarized her emotions in one word: “Awesome!”
Hudson admitted to being a little bit surprised by the results.
“I really wasn’t expecting it,” she said.
She indicated her willingness to connect with undergraduate students as a possible reason why she won the election.
“I think that there was just this huge push this year for more student engagement,” she said. “I think that maybe my platform really spoke to the students in terms of being able to represent absolutely everyone on campus and being able to reach out to groups who haven’t been reached out to before.”
Despite a delay in receiving the results of the vote and a disabled fire alarm—which interrupted the reading of the results and forced the crowd outside for the rest of the night—Hudson found election night in general to be a success.
“It was OK,” she said. “As usual, there were some problems with getting the votes counted, which is to be expected with the amount of votes they had to count. A big thank you to all the poll clerks for counting. There was the unfortunate fire alarm in the middle of the announcements, but other than that I think there was a good mood and everyone was relaxed—we knew what to expect.”
Hudson acknowledged she will face difficulties as vp student affairs, but maintained her faith in her abilities and those of her new coworkers.
“Managing that huge team of staff on the SFUO I think is going to be the biggest challenge for me, but I’m confident in our team and I’m confident in my abilities,” she said. “I think we’re going to have a great year.”
Hudson was sure to express her gratitude toward the student body.
“A big thanks for electing me—that’s amazing,” she said. “I’m glad you guys have confidence in me and I hope I can live up to that expectation.”
Hudson said the thing she looks forward to most in her new position is working with the rest of the newly elected SFUO executive.
“I’m just really excited, even though I don’t know my full team yet,” she said. “I think we’ll have a great year if we work together. We have a lot of great people, great ideas—the sky’s the limit.”
—Kristyn Filip
