Story updated 12:45 p.m. Feb. 10.
Following a tight campaign, Niki Boytchuk-Hale, ConEd ’24, will be Queen’s next Rector. She will take over the role from outgoing Rector Owen Crawford-Lem on May 1.
Opponent Leo Yang, ArtSci ’25, earned 36.3 per cent of the vote. Of all eligible voters—undergraduate and graduate students—4,842 cast ballots in this year’s Rector election. Not all students chose to a candidate, with 883 abstentions.
Adorned in a purple and red robe handed off to her by Crawford-Lem, Boytchuk-Hale stood on the stairs of her University home to thank her best friends, co-workers, and family for ing her throughout her campaign.
She wished Yang the best and for making the campaign experience engaging. Yang didn’t respond to The Journal’s request for comment in time for publication.
The first person Boytchuk-Hale called after finding out the results was her mom, who “put in a good word with Santa” the night before. It paid off.
With May 1 fast approaching, Boytchuk-Hale is already preparing for her first day in the office and vows to commit to the platform she ran on—communication, wellbeing, and collaboration.
“I’m really looking forward to getting into the Rector’s office and evaluating what has been happening over the past couple years and educating myself as much as possible,” Boytchuk-Hale said.
Crawford-Lem, who described himself as “washed up and old,” is excited to the torch to Boytchuk-Hale and looks forward to seeing what she accomplishes during her two or three-year tenure as Rector.
“There is nothing else like [the Rector position] in the world,” Crawford-Lem said in an interview with The Journal after the traditional robing of the incoming Rector. “It’s an opportunity, such a unique opportunity to really represent a really great, incredibly diverse student body.”
—With files from Asbah Ahmad
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