New SU President says he was ‘stunned’ by election win

BY KANZY MAHMOUD

Student Union President Mustafa Gamal told The Caravan that he was surprised to hear that he and his Vice-Presidential candidate Omar El Ghandour had won Sunday’s second round elections with nearly 200 votes difference.

SU Attorney-General Nour Sadek said that Gamal had won 1205 of 2239 votes while his rivals Assem Abdelhamid and Ali Shaltout gained 1001 votes.

Thirty-three votes were found to be invalid.

“I was stunned by the results because most of the indicators on Sunday were against our favor,” Gamal said.

He added that he had even held a meeting with his campaigners preparing them for a loss. However, he remains excited about the year.

The new presidency has already identified short-term goals – chiefly to finalize already open projects, such as the mock registration, which is a program initiated by the SU with the administration and is mainly a simulation of the registration process during advising.

Its purpose is for the university to forecast the actual registration mechanism by evaluating professors alongside students and asking them whose class to enroll in and what courses are actually offered, thereby minimizing any problems that usually occur during the process.

Other projects include the tuition cap models, which according to current SU Vice-President Hassaballah El Kafrawy, is a mechanism to halt the increase in tuition fees over the years.

As for the long-term goals, Gamal seeks “the internal empowerment of the Union as an entity, as members and as a stance.” He seeks to create an SU that is representing the student body and reflecting their needs.

Outgoing Vice-President Kafrawy, who did not vote on Sunday, said he wishes the new student government well.

“They should start pushing for a tuition cap and an institutionalized mechanism to raise students’ concerns,” he advised.