Usually on UT’s campus, the Student Government Association election season triggers mass celebration for one party and dejection for another.
Luckily for Grant Davis, the newly sworn-in Student Services Director of SGA, this year’s election turnouts were different.
After the emergence of a rare third party, a week of non-stop campaigning and a 24-hour delay due to technological difficulties, Davis was left standing as the only member of his party, Engage UT, to win one of the “Big Three” positions in SGA.
Unlike years past, when the positions of president, vice president and student services director have been filled by members of the same party, the surprise victory of the Baker-Atchley campaign, who did not run a candidate for the student services director position, meant that the role would have to be filled by someone on a different campaign.
Into this void stepped Davis, who was able to parlay his past experiences as the Assistant Director of Student Services into a 2,654 to 2,047 vote victory over Amplify UT’s candidate, Lindsey Huff.
This victory, however, was bittersweet for the livelong Vol fan from Shelbyville, Tenn.
“It was a bitter pill,” the junior in biosystems engineering said. “I was extremely sad. Over the course of this, they (his running mates Christian Powers and Laura Burgin) became like my brother and my sister, and it hurts me. It still hurts me, after all the time and effort that we put into it.”
For Davis, who was at Sunspot on the Strip with the rest of the members of Engage UT, his first thought wasn’t on his own victory but the results of his party.
“I felt more about them, and telling our 60 people at the party,” he said. “It wasn’t about me. We didn’t really think about me winning until Sunday.”
Newly sworn-in SGA president Jake Baker, a junior in political science, felt Davis’ victory got overlooked in the hoopla surrounding his own party’s performance.
“I kind of felt bad because people were saying, ‘The Baker-Atchley campaign won … and Grant Davis,'” Baker said. “So he didn’t get that moment. While he did win his position, his campaign didn’t really win.”
Despite Engage’s performance on the whole, Davis’ victory signaled a change in the attitude surrounding SGA for next year, as diverse opinions look to become the norm. Davis is quick to point out that these different views won’t be a hindrance but instead a benefit for the UT community.
“I’m not worried about partisanship. …” Davis said. “Jake, Paige and I are going to (do) everything possible to make sure that SGA is for the best of the students and not spite one another for a week that happened in April. We have more important issues to face.”
This attitude is shared by Baker, who jokingly makes references to the friendly rivalry between his own fraternity, Delta Tau Delta, and Davis’, Alpha Gamma Rho, when discussing the dynamic of next year’s SGA.
“Our fraternities have a longstanding rivalry,” Baker said. “But me and Grant, we have worked together in the past and joked back and forth about it.”
With these new relationships, Davis is hoping to continue improving student life on campus through the Student Services Director position.
“I want our committees, instead of just focusing wholly on SGA,” Davis said, “I want them to start reaching out to other campus organizations to help network with them. … As someone who understands the different factions of Student Services and campus, I feel that I could be the person to go up there and make Student Services mainstream in campus life and take it to that next level.”
Despite the disappointment of not moving forward with his running mates in the positions they intended to, Davis is excited for what the future holds for himself and his not-so-new cohorts on SGA.
“We’re all friends,” Davis said. “We just happen to wear different T-shirts for a week.”
