Lissa Knudsen won the GPSA presidential seat for 2009-10.
She will take office in mid-May.
All eight of the GPSA amendments passed, and the two motions of no confidence in President David Schmidly and Executive Vice President David Harris passed by margins of more than 70 percent.
Knudsen received 55 percent of the vote over her opponent, B. Lee Drake.
"I am honored to have been part of a competitive race," Knudsen said in a statement to the Daily Lobo on Friday. "Drake is an outstanding candidate, and I am lucky to have had the opportunity to run against him. Now it is time to look forward, build on the work we have done and continue to push for improved governance, job placements after graduation and fiscal responsibility."
Drake received 256 of the 569 votes, 45 percent, in the presidential election.
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There are about 6,000 graduate students attending UNM, so less than 10 percent of the graduate student body voted.
"I'd like to make full congratulations to Lissa Knudsen," Drake said. "I know she'll do a great job next year, and I think graduate students across the board will benefit."
University spokeswoman Susan McKinsey, in a statement on behalf of Schmidly and Harris regarding the vote, said the administration would try to regain the confidence of the graduate student population.
"Our graduate students help make UNM a top research University, and their success has always been one of this administration's priorities," McKinsey said. "In the past two years, UNM has added teaching assistants, increased graduate assistant salaries by 10 percent, and will be contributing up to $400,000 for graduate fellowships and travel. This administration will continue to work to restore the trust of those students who voted no confidence."
According to the 2008-09 UNM Fact Book prepared by the Office of Institutional Research, the number of graduate and teaching assistant positions has increased by 11 from 2006 to 2008. Salary and fellowship data was not immediately available Sunday.
The ballot for the three omitted motions - including no confidence in former Regents President Jamie Koch, the external audit of the University's finances, and the re-evaluation of the decision-making structures at UNM - will be available to graduate students today through Thursday. The ballot will be offered in the same online format used for the presidential election.
Danny Hernandez ran uncontested for GPSA council chairman and said he looks forward to working with Knudsen.
"I think I would have been happy with either Lissa or Lee," Hernandez said. "But I think Lissa has a little more experience than Lee. I look forward to working with both of them, and I expect to be working with both of them."
Knudsen said she would offer Drake a position in her administration.
"I think that Lee Drake is just a stand-up, amazing candidate and student," she said. "And I intend to offer him a position in the administration if he'll take it - any position that he feels that he'd be best suited for."
Knudsen said she wants to fill her cabinet as soon as possible and is accepting résumés from interested students.
"There's still a month left before I take office, but I think that we don't have any time to waste," she said. "I think that there are many challenges that I think we'll have to face this next year, so I'd really like to get to work establishing the administration."
