Tears of joy and loss were shed tonight as a long week of campaigning and debating came to an end as Katherine Hahnel and Will Weber were voted president and vice president of Student Government Association for the 2015-16 school year.

They won in a massive margin against presiential and vice presidential candidates Ellie Kremer and Hannah French by 565-313 votes.

Candidates waited on the third floor of the Student Union as Judicial Chief Justice Tyler Stevens announced the results of the 2015 Student Government Election, just after 10 p.m., Thursday night.

Hahnel, who has served as the vice president of SGA for the past year, was overjoyed with the results.

“I know it’s cliché but this literally means the world to me,” Hahnel said. “It’s something that I’ve always dreamed about and I’ve been waiting for this day for three years.”

Hahnel already has big plans for her first meeting as president.

“The first thing I’m planning on doing is instead of me just appointing who I want for the committee, I’m actually going to appoint two people for each position and have the Senators vote on who they want their legislative liaisons and stuff to be,” Hahnel said.

Weber, who served on the Senate this past year was elected as SGA vice president tonight.

“This victory means an awful lot to me,” Weber said. “I spent about two weeks working on this and I didn’t go on spring break so I could work on the campaign.”

NKU Dean of Students Jeffrey Waple wants Hahnel and Weber to remember what their platform was during the election as they moved forward with their positions.

“I think we’ve had a good five-year run now with successful presidents and Senators and I want them to remember that the Senate runs the agenda and they need to support that,” Waple said.

Patrick Reagan, who has served as university improvements chair for the past year and served as Hahnel and Weber’s campaign manager, feels that they were effective in including all students on campus in this election.

“We combined athletes, Greeks and students who don’t always feel included by Student Government,” Reagan said. “By electing a non-social Greek, commuter student, NKU finally has a student body president who represents the majority of them in Kat.”

Current SGA President John Jose, who openly endorsed Hahnel and Weber earlier this week, was there to witness  first-hand the results.

“It was just such an outstanding campaign for both of them but I think at the end of the day, I think the student body chose who they wanted and they wanted somebody who could have attainable plans to follow through on their bold ideas,” Jose said.

Kremer and French both served on SGA as Senators this past year and lost the presidential run this evening. They remain optimistic about the future, despite their loss.

“We definitely want to join SGA if a spot opens up.  We’re both juniors.  We still have a lot of time.” Kremer said, “We can run again if we want to.  I think we ran a really tough race and we can gave it our all.”

Jose also gave some words of advice for Ellie Kremer and Hannah French.

“Keep going back in Student Government. I was defeated two years ago and it didn’t stop me from doing what I wanted to do to help our university,” Jose said.

Gallery • 4 Photos

Carrie Crotzer

Tyler Stevens reads the result of the Student Government Association elections. The results were announce after two days of voting on March, 26, 2015.

Below is a list of the complete results: