After weeks of campaigning, this year’s mano a mano race for Student Government Board… After weeks of campaigning, this year’s mano a mano race for Student Government Board president ended last night, with Sumter Link defeating James Priestas by the slim margin of 187 votes.

With a stunning “Yeah!” from Link piercing the tense atmosphere of the SGB meeting room, the jubilation began for the new president and board members.

“Wow,” Link said, “I’m excited and ready to get to work. Hopefully, I live up to everyone’s expectations.”

While the hullabaloo from victorious new board members and their supporters dominated the scene, a humbled Priestas had nothing but praise for his opponent.

“I think the students selected a great leader,” Priestas said, “He’s fair and he’s honest.”

With the battle over, Link reflected on Priestas’ presidential potential.

“Jim’s a friend of mine,” Link said. “I feel bad that he had to be on the losing end of this because he would have been a great president.”

While Priestas will ride off into the sunset come Jan. 1, the other candidates on his Dedication slate – Francee Varner and Perry Servedio – will take their new positions on the board, alongside the rest of Link’s Students First slate, Gary Sanderson and board member Lacee Ecker.

“I think it should be interesting,” Ecker said of being the only returning board member, “I kind of feel like the mother of the group.”

Nila Devanath and Amanda Reed of the Students Always slate, along with the Inspire slate’s Ryan Haddad and Ryan Very, also won seats on the 2008 SGB.

With the lights dimmed and Timbaland’s “The Way I Are” replacing the silence of anxious candidates, the room grew even quieter as current president Shady Henien took his seat to announce the results.

Wearing his “politician face,” as he called it, the lame-duck president tortuously began entering the election results, showing the vote tallies for each hour of election day, resulting in repeated gasps and chaotic cries of suspense from those in attendance.

“You guys want some fruit punch?” Henien jokingly asked the disquieted candidates as he took his time revealing the results, “I’ve got until Dec. 31 to do this.”

“It was just crazy,” Reed said.

After he finished tormenting the candidates, Henien commended both winners and losers.

“It was an amazing race,” Henien said, “I’m proud of all the candidates.”

Amidst the celebration, Link was already thinking about making changes.

“I’m very excited to look at the results for the fall break referendum,” Link said.

Link’s platform featured the establishment of a fall break for Pitt students. As a current board member, Link placed a referendum on the elections ballot asking students if they would be interested.

Immediately after talking to The Pitt News, Link left to call his dad, who did not know he was running for SGB president until yesterday.

“He just forgot to tell him,” traditions committee chairwoman Amanda Satryan said.

Now knowing that the $2.4 million SGB budget will be in their hands, the new board members have already begun discussing what endeavors they will pursue.

The victorious Students First slate, in addition to Link’s fall break plans, hopes to make some major changes in the future.

Sanderson – whose 1714 votes were the most received by a board candidate – built his platform around recycling paper at computer labs, permitting a student-painted mural on a university building and revising the current meal plan system.

“I’m going to find out what’s really bothering students the most and make a campaign, a real campaign against it,” Ecker said.

While Priestas’ platform of regaining a student vote on the board of trustees and placing the student events calendar on all computer lab homepages did not translate into a win, his running-mates now have the opportunity to pursue their goals.

Servedio hopes to improve campus computer lab procedures, as well as bring authorized music downloading to Pitt. Varner’s will focus on improving Student Health Services and renovating fitness centers around campus.

Other board member’s goals include Devanath’s continued effort to promote a new policy limiting the number of finals a student can have in one day, and Inspire’s Haddad and Very are working towards improving safety around Oakland.

Out of the 17,246 potential voters at Pitt, it took only 1,794 for Link to claim the presidency. Priestas received 1,607 votes.

The total of 3,401 presidential votes trails last year’s voter turnout of 4,357 by almost 1,000 votes.

“I wish more students here at Pitt took pride in our SGB,” Henien said in his opening statement.

With the dust of the election settled, all board-hopefuls finally have a chance to catch their breath.

When asked how she was going to celebrate her reelection, Ecker said, “I’m going to sleep.”