In UNC Wilmington’s first on-line elections, senior Adrien Lopez emerged as the winner of the Student Government Association’s presidential elections.

Lopez said she wanted to be SGA president because it would give her the opportunity to act as the voice of students. She wanted to hear their concerns and try to help them.

“I think it is a leadership role with a lot of potential to do good things for students and to be a role model for different types of groups” Lopez said.

Senior Skipper Mervin won the vice-presidency after a run-off election, as neither he nor Steve Hernandez, the second candidate, won 50 percent of the vote. Mervin ran as Lopez’s unofficial running mate.

“Skipper had the most involvement and I think we will work well together and keep each other on our toes,” Lopez said.Mervin said he ran because Lopez was running and also because he had been in SGA for a long time and wanted the chance to run things the way he wanted.

“We are both somewhat liberal, we have basically the same goals of what we would like to see done and what we think the positions are for,” Mervin said.

Lopez said she plans to attack issues like a lack of diversity on campus and attempt to cut back on racial discrimination and profiling. She wants to work with the community and local businesses to build support by displaying UNCW propaganda in their businesses. Lopez said she also wants to work towards making graduation more traditional and not just a “thrown together” event.

Another area of interest for Lopez is campus media. She said she wants to get WLOZ back on the air and maybe even broaden the range of listeners. She would also like to work with the campus television station. She would like to see more student involvement and have these entities work toward independence.

“It is the voice of students. We have the power that can be stepped up if students want it to be” Lopez said.

A double major in Spanish and communication studies, Lopez will graduate in May of 2002. She is from Valdez, Alaska and came to UNCW looking for a different atmosphere. Lopez was president of her high school student body.

Since she has been at UNCW, Lopez has served as freshman class president in 1998-1999, and was also involved in the creation of the P.E.A.C.E. group.

In the future, Lopez said she plans to spend a year in Latin America studying the culture, and then maybe work in the political realm or media. Lopez has considered attending law school or a graduate program in environmental or international business. Another consideration of Lopez’s is possibly going back to Alaska to hold the office of senator or state legislator.