DV grad wins Univ. of Arizona presidential bid

He won the election in the largest margin of victory in school history, and he did it as a write-in candidate.

Chris Nagata was elected student body president of the University of Arizona, bringing in nearly 68 percent of the votes, compared to 17 percent by his closest challenger.

The Physiology major from Ahwatukee Foothills won the election amidst a school ruling that ended up leaving his name off the ballot.

After acquiring the necessary number of signatures to have his name put on the presidential ballot, Nagata turned them into school administrators only to find out that there were some duplicate signatures and others were just ineligible. Thus, he was told his name would be left off the ballot, leaving only one presidential nominee for students to choose from when they went to vote on March 11 and 12.

"After I collected what I thought was enough, they came back and told me that my name would not be on the ballot," Nagata said.

He decided to pursue the campaign anyway. He campaigned on the idea of a declining economic climate and the coming cutbacks to all university systems, promising a good relationship between school administrators and student government.

"We definitely have our hands full," he said. "The economic climate looks so bleak, there just are not resources there. It's become a difficult situation."

Nagata said he is the third Desert Vista High School graduate to become student body president at the University of Arizona. He chose to move to Tucson, he said, because of the opportunity it provided with his plans to attend medical school.

"(UA) fit more in line with where I wanted to go with medical school," he said. "(Arizona State University) was such a close proximity, I wanted to get away."

Currently a junior, Nagata has been involved with student government since he was a freshman. He is a current board member of the Arizona Student Association, a group made up of students from the state universities, which advocates on behalf of students of higher education.

Then this year, he said, the opportunity presented itself for him to run for president and, thus, become more deeply involved in the interactions between students and administrators.

"I was involved with student government since I started here, and, with the support of students and volunteers, I decided to go ahead with putting my name out there for president," Nagata said.

He did not expect to win by as much, especially since he was counting on fellow students to spread the word to write his name in.

"I was very fortunate to have some dedicated volunteers," Nagata said. "It was unique in that there was no precedent for write-in candidates. It did kind of rewrite the history books."

Nagata is the third graduate from Desert Vista to be elected as UA student body president since 2003. Erin Hertzog, who became president part way through the 2005-06 school year and served through 2007, and J.P. Benedict, president for the 2003-04 school year, preceded him.