Amitoj Kaur and Khenadi Grubb have been elected as Miami University’s Student Body President (SBP) and Vice President for the 2022-2023 academic year after a total of 2,571 students voted in the election.
Associated Student Government (ASG) conducts voting through The Hub and uses a ranking system in which voters rank the candidates as first, second and third choice. Kaur and Grubb received 66.82% of first-choice votes.
Grubb said the number of students that voted for her and Kaur amazed them, and they feel grateful for people voting and encouraging others to vote.
“I felt so honored that we were able to impact that many students on this campus who believed in us and … cared enough [to vote],” Grubb said. “I think the reason students don’t vote is because [they] don’t really care. It’s just the fact that that many people wanted to see us succeed that they put in the time and the effort and cared enough to not only vote, but then share it with others.”
The pair ran against Austin Tyree and Dan Pollock, and Danielle Stein and Adam Weiss, the two other SBP and VP slates. According to Senate Speaker Victoria Villanueva, Tyree and Pollock received 17.31% of first-choice votes, and Stein and Weiss received 15.87%.
Kaur and Grubb ran on a platform of enhancing the multicultural experience, student life and student health and wellness.
Their strategy throughout the election process was to run their campaign themselves rather than put together a team of campaign staff.
Kaur said she wanted their team to be just her and Grubb so students could get a better sense of who they are and what their platform is.
“[We thought] regardless of whether or not this makes us win, we’re going to be ourselves,” Kaur said. “We’re going to be 100% authentic. We didn’t know if it was going to get us the win, but I think it worked. I think people were actually able to see who we are as people versus two candidates for student body president and vice president.”
Kaur and Grubb received multiple endorsements from student organizations, including the Diversity Affairs Council (DAC), The Miami Student and both Miami College Democrats and Miami College Republicans. Kaur says no other SBP ticket has received this bipartisan support in Miami’s history.
Kaur said one of the ways she hopes to make change at Miami as SBP is encouraging more connection between College Democrats and College Republicans.
“Moving forward, we want to make that type of energy the standard,” Kaur said. “This is normal, these two groups get along all the time, they call each other their friends … I know a Miami like that used to exist.”
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Kaur said their next point of action is to rest and regroup over spring break before putting together a cabinet and learning more about the responsibilities of being SBP.
“[Khenadi and I] have been glued to our phones and our everything for the past three weeks, and I think a burnt-out president and vice president is not anything the university needs right now,” Kaur said. “[We’ll be] unplugging and then [after spring break] hitting the ground running, figuring out the missing pieces of the puzzle.”
Grubb said they have already had contact with potential cabinet members.
“We’ve had several people reach out to us and show interest,” Grubb said. “It makes me excited that there’s so many students on this campus that are eager to lead and eager to make change.”
Grubb said while she appreciates people showing interest, she wants to make sure that she and Kaur pick people that will be the right fit.
“It’s a very important process to us that we find the right people in order to not only help our initiatives move further but find people that genuinely care about the student body and want to do great things for campus,” Grubb said.
Kaur said she appreciates everyone who supported them and their ideas.
“I cannot be [more] grateful for the Miami community for believing in us and our ticket and our dreams and allowing this opportunity,” Kaur said.
Grubb said she and Kaur want to collaborate with the other candidates next year.
“[The other candidates] both ran amazing campaigns and it was an honor to run against such talented leadership,” Grubb said. “We really look forward to working with them and their amazing ideas in the future.”
Grubb said she wants students to know they can come to her or Kaur with any concern.
“I want to thank the entire student body and we want all of you to know to please come to us with anything,” Grubb said. “Email us. If you have our numbers, text us. We want to hear from you and we want to work with you.”
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