By Patrick T. Sullivan

While roughly 20 Student Government hopefuls anxiously waited for election results in the Student Center basement Thursday night, Micah Fielden and Nikki Hurt looked on with confidence.

Fielden, the lone presidential candidate, and Hurt, his running mate, knew their fate long before election results were announced. This year’s election presidential race marked the first uncontested one since the 2008-2009 school year.

Brandon Knight received 20 write-in votes.

“We were relieved to run uncontested,” Fielden, an agricultural biotechnology junior said. “Our focus was on the candidates who were on our ticket.”

The duo’s focus paid off, as every candidate on the Fielden-Hurt ticket won his or her respective election.

“We’re elated,” Hurt, also an agricultural biotechnology junior, said. “I can’t wait to get working. Our entire ticket put in a lot of effort.”

As a members of the senate, Hurt and Fielden concentrated mostly on student organizations and funding and hope to continue that progress, Fielden said.

“When we make our budget in the fall, we’re going to expand the amount of funding for student organizations,” he said.

In addition to funding student organizations, the new president and vice president hope to increase student advocacy in Frankfort, Hurt said.

Transparency is also on the new administration’s agenda.

“We’re going to be in every campus organization we can get into in the fall,” Fielden said. “We really want to be present and visible.”

To enlighten UK on Student Government’s actions, Fielden said his administration plans to be actively involved with the Kernel.

“We want to open our legislative aspect up to students,” Hurt said.

Fielden said the administration will also use the Internet to engage students. He vowed to update the website regularly and respond to emails in a timely fashion.

“Communication is key,” he said.

Fielden and Hurt’s victory ends Ryan Smith and Kelsey Hayes’ two- year term as president and vice president. The two will graduate in May. Under their regime, Smith and Hayes helped start programs like Tally Cats and the Cat’s Cruiser, Hurt said.

Smith said he is content with the work his administration did and will miss being president.

“(Kelsey and I) have been blessed to serve one, let alone two terms,” he said. “I will really miss representing the stude

nts.”

Hurt lauded Smith and Hayes for their work and said the two will make the transition easy.

“They gave us some great programs, and now it’s our time to take a turn with advocacy,” she said.

Smith credited his success as president to his staff, and said he hopes the new administration will build on what it did.

To do so, Smith said Fielden and Hayes will need to focus on the students, not just the issues.

“They’ll have to recognize who they’re representing and that every decision is important,” he said.

“Starting with K Week, we’re going to pump up the freshmen,” he said. “We want everyone to be involved in Student Government.”