New term for Grønmo
The incumbent Rector Sigmund Grønmo will be filling the position of rector at UiB for a further four years. This was clear when the votes have been counted, with the result showing a high turnout. ‘This is a convincing vote of confidence for the whole rector team,’ says Sigmund Grønmo.
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After the polling stations closed at 16.00, the election committee collected and counted the votes.
The result showed that Sigmund Grønmo, together with Berit Rokne, Kuvvet Atakan and Astri Andresen received most votes in this year’s rectorial election.
Rector Grønmo and his new vice-rectors won with 52.6 per cent of the weighted votes. The contender Rolf Reed received 43.8 percent of the weighted votes, while 3.6 were blank votesI
In terms of actual votes, Rector Grønmo received 3,231 votes, while Mr Reed received 2,769. There were 290 blank votes. This totals 6,290 votes.
The contenders Rolf Reed, Ernst Nordtveit and Lise Øvreås thereby had to admit defeat to the candidacy of the incumbent rector, by 462 votes.
Fantastic election turnout
The election turnout was much higher than in the 2005 election. A total of 70.9 per cent of the academic staff voted, compared to 53.9 per cent at the last election. The technical/administrative staff registered a turnout of 69.2 per cent compared with 50.1 per cent in 2005. More students have also voted in this election, 31.2 per cent compared with 13.4 per cent in 2005. ¨
‘This is a very convincing vote of confidence for the entire rector team,’ says Rector Sigmund Grønmo. ‘There was a record turnout and the result was clear. We therefore have a great starting point for governing the University of Bergen.’
He also sees the election result as being a vote of confidence for the work that the incumbent rector and vice-rectors have carried out.
Aim to unite the university
Rector Grønmo would also like to take this opportunity to thank everyone that voted for the team consisting of himself, Berit Rokne as vice-rector, Kuvvet Atakan as vice-rector for education and Astri Andresen as vice-rector for international relations. He also greatly appreciates the efforts made by employees during the election campaign.
The rector and vice-rectors are looking forward to tackling new challenges for the University of Bergen and emphasise that they aim to unite the university.
‘We are going to focus on UiB as a whole with great respect for the different discipline cultures,’ says Rector Grønmo.
Berit Rokne found the election campaign demanding, but in a positive way. There has been a great deal of interest in the election, and she emphasises that the rector team will take the differing points of view that arose during the election with them into their work.
‘We will look at everything that came up during the election campaign and see how we can achieve a unifying effect for the university,’ she says.
Congratulations from the opposition
This evening, Rolf Reed congratulated Sigmund Grønmo on the election result.
‘It is great that the turnout was so good,’ says Rolf Reed to På Høyden. ‘There has been a lot of lively discussion during this election campaign. A great deal came up during the debate that I hope will be included in future work'
'Do you think you will stand for election again?’
‘That's a question I don't want to answer at the moment,’ says Rolf Reed.
Sigmund Grønmo believes that the enormous amount of interest that the election campaign generated is important.
‘I'm glad that we had a contending team’, he says. ‘The election debate has been important, and lots of points of view and opposing views have been aired in matters that are important to the university. We shall definitely take this with us. The university is the focus, and it's therefore important that we work on diversity.’
