News-Letter

Media Credit: Laura Bitner [Click to enlarge]

Although many positions were uncontested, Student Council class elections saw a significant increase in voter turnout this year, with about 1,400 students voting compared to just over 1,100 last year.

Only 32 candidates ran for the 21 positions that were voted on. The class of 2010 claimed more than half of the candidates, with 17 students contending for their seven offices. All of the offices for the class of 2009 were uncontested.

Sophomore Jeremy Batoff, head of the Committee on Student Elections (CSE), attributes the significant number of uncontested positions to the fact that "people just don't care."

He believes that the main goal of the CSE is to ensure equality and fairness in elections. He looks to the rest of Student Council to address the perceived problem of student disinterest. "The first priority is that everything is fair. We do a good job. But one problem the school has is that people are apathetic to the Student Council and to student government," Batoff said.

"Some candidates from the class of 2010 exhibited an active interest in re-defining the role of StuCo within the school."

Class of 2010 President Teryn Norris-Hale, who co-founded Hopkins Energy Action Team this year, has strong words for StuCo.

"Actions speak louder than words ... The fact is that most students are apathetic because StuCo focuses on irrelevant issues. I plan to combat this by working on the big issues we all care about — and then utilizing the same sort of organizational tactics I have used for HEAT to bring students together," he said.

Evan Lazerowitz, Senator of Legislation for the class of 2010, says that StuCo is not taken seriously because it lacks legitimacy.

"A lot of the organizations that run under us, like the HOP, MSE, Spring Fair, and the SAC, do not regularly report to us, as they are required to do. It's our job to give them a lot of oversight, and that does not really occur," he said. He thinks that StuCo has extended itself to the point where they can no longer "make sure they're doing a good job, etc. As a result, we're not taken seriously."

The Student Council for the class of 2008 will keep Natasha Singh as President, Julia Cheung as Vice President, Kristina Das as Secretary, Doohyun Lee as Senator of Finance, Aaron Selikson as Senator of Legislation, Derrick Kuan as Senator of COLA and Zachary Moor as Senator of Authorization.

"I wanted to do it freshman year but my English sucked," Lee said.

Although every candidate was allowed to campaign the week of April 5-12, many nominees did not campaign with posters and banners. "I didn't do anything. I think I saw Anupama's posters around campus though," Lee said.

For the class of 2009, Sonny Chandrasekhar was elected as President, Jessica Buicko as Vice President, Tuyen Nguyen as Secretary, Marissa Neto as Senator of Finance, Kate Jacob as Senator of Legislation, Chethan Mallela as Senator of COLA and Nick Pucci as Senator of Authorization.

There were significantly fewer candidates running for upperclassmen positions than for the class of 2010. "I think that a lot of times there aren't as many people running for junior and senior class offices because it's harder to jump into things later on," Buicko said. "I think the fact that I've been VP of my class both freshman and sophomore years have allowed me to build a strong relationship with many of the students and faculty members involved with StuCo."

Although the Committee for Student Elections allows candidates to spend up to $300 on campaigning, the majority of nominees did not even campaign.

"I actually didn't spend any money on my campaign. In the past I've made fliers and posters but by the end of sophomore year I feel like I've meet a lot more people, and when I went around getting signatures to be on the ballot, I used that to talk about my campaign," Buicko said.

The highly contested class of 2010 Student Council comprises Teryn Norris as President, Nate Levin as Vice President, Affan Sheikh as Secretary, Joshua Loveall as Senator of Finance, Evan Lazerowitz as Senator of Legislation, Viann Nguyen as Senator of COLA and Dea Lovy as Senator of Authorization.

Except for Senator of Legislation, every position for the class of 2010 had at least two nominees. Lazerowitz, Loveall and Levin were the only students re-elected to their offices.

Luke Kelly-Clyne, who is secretary for the current academic year, ran for President unsuccessfully. In addition, Victor Wu, the current Senator of Authorization, was not re-elected.

Lazerowitz affirms that a fair number of incumbents lost due to their disappointing performances this year.

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