If unity breeds success, this year’s elections may have ushered in the boldest and most progressive class of executives yet. The bulk of that potential grows from the A.S. Council’s new constitution, tailored by President Harry Khanna to grant the executive group more power.

With the Student Voice! slate sweeping all executive slots, President-elect Marco Murillo should have a more robust mandate. However, Murillo will be expected to push through the student-centered agenda on which his platform was based – and he won’t be able to blame any problems on a bare support base.

Murillo’s executives will be the newest wielders of council voting power. They will have the authority to appoint several officers under them, with each controlling vital aspects of campus life, including programming and enterprise operations.

In an even broader view, SV! won a heavy majority of the college senatorial seats, further reducing the chance for council fracturing. If there is resistance, it will most likely come from this year’s opposing SHOCK! slate, whose chief candidate Dan Palay trailed Murillo by a slim margin in the presidential race. SHOCK! claimed every seat at Earl Warren College.

This year’s elections also saw SV! feted with the highest student election turnout since independent candidate Jenn Pae’s runoff victory in 2004. Such signs of student involvement and support are becoming more apparent, and can serve to boslter SV!’s cause even more.

Once SV! executives begin their official terms – shoulder-to-shoulder with many of their election-mates and holding newfound political power – the buzzword of their campaigns, unity, will have hopefully quieted into a mindset of concerted action.