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Matt Panconi grabs student body presidential win

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Matt Panconi is the newly elected president of the Rutgers University Student Assembly (RUSA) for the 2015 to 2016 academic year. The Rutgers Business School junior won with 52 percent of the vote, which translates to 1,304 votes.

Along with Panconi, Brianna Battle and Vishal Patel were elected vice president and treasurer respectively, making all members on the Rutgers Students United (RSU) ticket the winners of this year’s student body election.

The former chair of Student Affairs for the 2014-2015 academic year, Panconi won by a 4 percent margin against opponent Justin Lucero of The Rutgers Alliance ticket, with a platform focused on lowering tuition and uniting student organizations on the University campus.

“I’m really excited (and) really thrilled,” he said. “This year I’ve really been working hard, and I’m excited to be president and hopefully bring some positive change that will impact (members) of the University.”

Panconi said he wants to continue holding monthly meetings with leaders of multiple student organizations to open lines of communication, a practice that occurred during his term as the chair of Student Affairs this past year.

RUSA plans to work toward obtaining more state funding that can be budgeted to decrease tuition by launching a campaign and writing to lawmakers in Trenton, Panconi said.

“Tuition equity is the No. 1 thing that students have wanted RUSA to work on, according to RUSA’s annual ‘What’s on your mind?’ survey,” he said. “It’s time that RUSA tries to work on it … We need to try and advocate for the needs of students.”

The 2015-2016 RUSA executive board is excited to further engage with the student body, said Brianna Battle, newly elected vice president of RUSA and a School of Arts and Sciences junior.

Battle claimed 61 percent of the student vote, which translates to 1,518 votes, winning by a 22 percent margin against opponent Luke Svasti.

“It feels empowering and it’s amazing,” she said. “I have been inspired by the past body … and that I get to inspire a new generation of a diverse group of people that want to be (involved) in politics and that want to be involved in this community.”

Panconi and Battle both stressed the importance of actively seeking student input.

RUSA is going to put more effort in their attempts to seek student input during their decision-making process, and plans on becoming more accessible to the student body, increasing office hours to 40 hours per week, Panconi said.

“That’s our job,” he said. “The student body elects us to advocate for their needs. We’re the bridge between the student body and the University, and we’re fighting for what students want us to do.”

Dan Corey is a Rutgers Business School first-year student majoring in pre-business and journalism and media studies. He is an Associate News Editor at The Daily Targum. Follow him on Twitter @_dancorey for more stories.

Editor's Note: A previous version of this article said Matt Panconi was a School of Arts and Sciences junior.



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