Sophomores John Jensen and Danielle Jordan won the Whitewater Student Government presidential elections with 338 votes.

The pair beat the second-place write-in combination of juniors Patrick Jamar and Jamie Selck by 327 votes in the March 20-21 elections.

Jensen, a political science major from Burlington, Wis., will be the new president and Jordan, an accounting major and political science minor from St. Charles, Ill., will take over Jensen’s current position as vice president.

The election results were approved by the WSG senate Monday.

They sat down with the Royal Purple to share their thoughts on the election and their upcoming time in office.

RP: What is one word you would use to describe yourself? Why?

JJ: Committed. You have to spend a lot of time planning … to make sure you can serve students the best way possible. This last year as vice president, I’ve had to do that, and I’m committed enough to do it another year.

DJ: I would probably use the word determined because I’m really hard working, and I’m always trying to do things the best I can. That’s just something that’s really big in my personality.

RP: When did you first become interested in government?

JJ: I think around fourth grade is when I started paying attention to politics and asking my parents how government worked. From there, I tried to figure out everything I could about it. Student government I started getting interested in the second I walked onto campus.

DJ: Probably eighth grade when I learned about the constitution and all that in middle school. I did student council in high school. I kind of wanted to do something in an organization that was similar to that, and I didn’t really realize what WSG was until I joined it and I fell in love with it.

RP: What do you plan to focus on during your time in office?

JJ: I think one of the biggest things is making sure the students are home here at UW-Whitewater. That’s both economically and socially. We want to make sure students’ rights are being fought for with smoking bans, and there’s a lot of discussion about potentially giving faculty their own parking lot on campus. We want to make sure that student voices are being heard in all aspects.

RP: Do you think either of you will further yourselves in politics in the future?

DJ: It’s not my major, but it’s something I love. Depending on where I live in the future, [I would] see if I could join a committee there or something, but it’s just an organization I love to do.

JJ: Being a political science major, it’s definitely something I want to do in the future. Right after college, I plan on going to law school at UW-Madison, and we’ll see what happens from there. I’d love to hold a national office some day, but we’ll see what’s in the cards.

RP: For Jensen – What would you consider some of your main accomplishments this past year as vice president?

JJ: I think what we’ve seen is a lot of interest on campus compared to what we had last year. We’ve got in a lot of new people, and they seem really interested. Even around campus there’s a lot more interest than there seemed to be last year. I think that’s partially due to what President [Patrick] Johnson and myself have been doing this year with talking to people, making sure that student concerns are being heard and addressed.

RP: For Jordan – Have you learned anything from Jensen since he became vice president that you will apply to your new position?

DJ: Being a vice president … the key job is to be a good listener. I’m very outspoken sometimes, and what I’ve learned from John is he kind of sat back and listened to everybody else and then stated his opinion and kind of has been the mediator between the e-board and the senators. That’s something I definitely will use next year.