Results from the university-wide elections were released on Monday evening, April 25th. The ballot featured votes for Student Trustee and Undergraduate Student Senate elections as well as four referenda questions. This year’s elections were very successful, with more participation from candidates, displayed in an increase in candidacy and efforts in campaigning, and the student body in general. It was a serious step up from previous years’ elections.
The position of Student Trustee was the most lucrative and hotly contested position. The Student Trustee is elected by the student body and sits on the Board of Trustees for the entire UMass system. Under the current senate constitution and bylaws, the trustee also sits as a member of the Student Senate. The winner of the position was current Senator Aleksandar Kulenovic. Kulenovic campaigned diligently, displayed by creating a special website, www.trusteealex.com, to communicate his positions to the student body.
In the College of Liberal Arts, the competition was fierce. Ulisses Verala and current Senate Vice-President Michael Metzger earned the most votes in the college and will become its official representatives to the Senate. In CLA, there were five senators re-elected to the at-large positions: Andrew Donaldson, Joanna Prifti, Meaghan Brazell, Kudakwashe Mutumba, and Taylor Fife. Current Student Trustee Fritz Hyppolite was also elected as an at-large senator. Three newcomers, Jethro Dely, Adaku Apugo and Misha Sidorsky were elected as well.
Official representatives from the College of Science and Mathematics will be Michelle Laguerre and Julio Diaz. At-large Senators from that college will be Stacey Schwartz, Purnima Kompella, Victor Udom, Henry Nsang and Liliana Teixiera.
Winners from the College of Community and Public Service include Milissa Garside, Karen Stram and Adam-Paul Tuzzo. Brian Harvey and Priscilla Walker will be the official representatives as the winners of the most votes from that college.
In the College of Management, current Senator Stephen Lucien and newcomer Mohamed Mohamed won as the official representatives. At large senators will be Naomi Remie, Nataly Del Rosario and Loan Ho.
There were no candidates for the College of Nursing and thus, will have no representation on the Senate. The Senate may hold special elections to fill these vacant seats prospectively within the next year.
The proposed constitution for next year’s Senate passed easily as a referendum question. Two referenda suggesting opt-out fee hikes also passed. One was a five dollar increase that would be used to promote renewable energy production on campus. The other was a seven dollar fee that would be used to fund MassPIRG operations at UMB. The last referendum suggested that Healey Library expand its hours, provide more computers, and adopt a more liberal printing policy.
This year’s turnout was certainly a success compared to previous years, according to Elections Committee chairman Matthew Landry. “A total of 744 students voted, which is higher than it has been in the past five years,” he said.
“One reason for the higher turnout this year is the fact that the current Senate is more involved with on-campus issues such as food services and student affairs, and off-campus issues such as public higher education,” added Landry.
Despite the increase in voter turnout, the elections were not without their own set of problems. “Senate debates are a very problematic area. It’s difficult to get students to participate and this is really the only chance to find out who the candidates are aside from a paragraph description. I’m sure we could have more students voting if we were more visible,” noted Landry. “Next year I would like to see the elections committee set up physical voting locations, where students can vote electronically or using a paper ballot.”
The Senators and Trustee were not the only ones to win during the elections. Besides getting to voice your opinion, the voting doubled as a raffle for an iPod. Janice Peters of CLA was the lucky winner.