Student voters turned out last week in their highest numbers since 1975 to elect senior Adrian Klenz and sophomore Kate Demerse Student Senate president and vice president.

The duo beat out juniors Saskia Harak and Kevin Funk by a vote of 1,043 to 594.

Klenz said he hopes students currently not a part of Senate will apply to join its executive board positions. Just getting the word out about how students can get involved will help, he said.

Klenz and Demerse also said they want to encourage students to stop by and speak to senators during their weekly office hours. Student feedback will be crucial to their administration, Klenz said.

“We want to put it out there for the students,” Klenz said. “We want to tell students to hold us accountable.”

The presence of the new student center referendum may have clouded the election results, Harak said. The Klenz ticket was fervently against the building of a new student center at this time.

The issue was politicized when it shouldn’t have been, Harak said.

“But it’s good that (the referendum) got people to vote,” she said.

The other referendum, to maintain Eau Claire’s membership in the UW System student lobbying group United Council, passed by 1,282 votes to 486.

Both presidential candidates said that, regardless of the results, they were happy with the high level of voter turnout that characterized the election.

Outgoing Student Senate President Sarah Schuh was pleased as well.

“It’s definitely a victory for students,” Schuh said. “I hope that energy carries over into the state budget campaign.”

The campaign will be one of the most important issues facing both the new administration and the student body as a whole, Schuh said.

Klenz and Demerse agreed, adding that they are interested in student input first and foremost.

Part of the new Senate administration’s job will be to ease some of the tensions that arose during the election, Schuh said. Now that the election itself is over, that’s already happening, she said.

Harak agreed.

“The political tensions will be worked past,” she said.

Harak said she hopes to continue to stay involved in Senate. The new student government will be an interesting mix of new senators with fresh ideas and veteran senators with more experience, Harak said.

Klenz is eager to get started in his new leadership role.

“Senate is anything students want to make of it,” Klenz said. “It’ll be an exciting year.”