The University Board of Elections hosted an event in the Programs and Councils Center Friday evening to announce the winners of the Spring 2019 University-wide elections.
Ellie Brasacchio — third-year College student and outgoing Chair of the Representative Body — defeated first-year Curry student Arabella Lee for the position of Student Council president, winning 89.1 percent of the votes, compared to Lee’s 10.9 percent.
Brasacchio ran on a ticket with third-year College student Taylor Overton and second-year College student Shefalika Prasad, who both ran unopposed for Student Council vice president for administration and Student Council vice president for organizations, respectively.
Brasacchio received 2,645 votes with 12.6 percent of the student body voting in the Student Council presidential election, down from last year’s 18.8 percent.
According to Alex Smith-Scales, Chair of the University Board of Elections, this year’s election was notable for its sense of apathy.
“It seems like the people really aren’t engaging with student government anymore,” Smith-Scales said. “And we can see that both through just the unwillingness to vote in elections even though they are very accessible and they take like a very small percentage of time to do. But, also the amount of people that were running. I think that this was the least contested election race, that I’ve at least seen at my time at U.Va.”
However, there was much activity in the pool of Student Council Undergraduate Arts & Sciences Representatives. This pool included ten candidates. First-year College student Isabella Liu defeated third-year College student Allison Kammerman, second-year Hunter Wagenaar and Matthew Foreman — who received the second, third and fourth most votes, respectively — for Student Council Undergraduate Arts & Sciences Representative.
Second-year College student Dre Dilao was elected College Council president with a majority vote of approximately 51 percent with an overall 14.9 percent voter count in the College.
New presidents and vice presidents were also elected to Second Year and Third Year Councils. Emma Sisk became Second Year Council president and Jayla Hart, Second Year Council vice president.
Third Year Council president went to Jason Anderson and Third Year Council vice president to Kristin Myers.
For Fourth Year Trustees, Omar Elhaj was appointed president and vice president to Ginny Brooks.
Although last year voter turnout in the SYC presidential election was approximately 48.8 percent and turnout in the vice president election was approximately 46.2 percent, according to results released Friday by the University Board of Elections, this year’s voter turnout dropped to 22.2 percent and 22.1 percent, respectively.
Many positions throughout Student Council, Honor Committee, University Judiciary Committee and their respective school councils were left with vacancies, most notable in Batten Graduate and Undergraduate Councils, Nursing Student Council and the Education Council.
There were three referenda on this year’s ballot — two referenda for the University Judiciary Committee and one referendum for the Honor Committee. All referenda were passed.
A proposed amendment to the Honor Constitution sought to implement an alternative pathway for the Honor Committee to remove members, passing with 89.41 percent of the votes. Voter turnout in this referendum was approximately 10.51 percent, according to results released Friday by the University Board of Elections.
Under the new amendment, if four fifths of the entire Honor Committee come to a consensus about a removal, it will pass. This amendment also preserves the current method of removal — a recall election — based on a recall petition signed by at least ten percent of University students.
The University Judiciary Committee’s first amendment will modernize the language of their Constitution. The most important changes include making the document gender-neutral — “their”“ replacing “his” or “her” — and replacing the phrase “psychological conditions” with “contributory health impairments.”
Other edits include capitalizing the first letter in “article” and swapping “allegations of Prohibited Misconduct” with “allegations of Prohibited Conduct” in the constitution. This amendment was passed into the University Justice Committee Constitution with 84.4 percent of the votes.
The second change refines the UJC’s Statute of Limitations, formalizing resubmission of a complaint by creating a timeframe of 14 days for the complainant to file the resubmission. Complaints may be re-filed for reasons including, but not limited to, “improper formatting, the Committee’s decision to proceed with some, but not all, of the standards alleged or a description of the incident which is insufficient to determine whether or not the alleged incident is within the Committee’s jurisdiction.”
This addition was passed with 88.6 percent.
Full results:
Student Council
Student Council President: Ellie Brasacchio
Student Council Vice President for Organizations: Shefalika Prasad
Student Council Vice President for Administration: Taylor Overton
Student Council School of Architecture Representative: Harley Robertson
Student Council Undergraduate Arts and Sciences Representatives: Isabella Liu, Allison Kammerman, Hunter Wagenaar, Matthew Foreman, Omar Metwally, Aneesha Goodala, Mehdy Elouassi, Seth Miller, Brooke Norton, Ilyas Saltani
Student Council Undergraduate Batten Representative: Asha Chadha
Student Council Graduate Batten Representative: James Reed
Student Council Undergraduate Commerce Representative: John Irvine
Student Council Graduate Commerce Representative: vacant
Student Council Undergraduate Continuing and Professional Studies Representative: John Troup Hemenway
Student Council Graduate Continuing and Professional Studies Representative: vacant
Student Council Undergraduate Education Representative: Kennedy Radix
Student Council Graduate Education Representative: vacant
Student Council Undergraduate Engineering and Applied Sciences Representative: Zane Alpher
Student Council Graduate Engineering and Applied Sciences Representative: vacant
Student Council Medicine Representative: vacant
Student Council Undergraduate Nursing Representative: Christina Ngo
Student Council Graduate Nursing Representative: vacant
Second Year Council
Second Year Council President: Emma Sisk
Second Year Council Vice President: Jayla Hart
Third Year Council
Third Year Council President: Jason Anderson
Third Year Council Vice President: Kristin Myers
Fourth Year Trustees
Fourth Year Trustees President: Omar Elhaj
Fourth Year Trustees Vice President: Ginny Brooks
Honor Committee Representatives
Honor Architecture Representative: Caroline Carr Grant
Honor Batten Representative: Stearns Swetnam, Harper North
Honor Undergraduate Arts and Sciences Representative: Lillie Lyon, Alex Spratley, Mary Beth Barksdale, Derrick Wang, Christian Smith
Honor Commerce Representative: Lucy Krasker, Jake Staub
Honor Continuing and Professional Studies Representative: Lucian Mirra, George Maris
Honor Undergraduate Education Representative: vacant
Honor Graduate Education Representative: Al Ahmed
Honor Engineering and Applied Sciences Representative: Sally Greenberg, Kelechi Nwanevu
Honor Medicine Representative: Peyton Terry
Honor Nursing Representative: Jaelen Guerrant
Architecture School Council
Architecture School Council President: William Simopoulos
Architecture School Council Vice President: Garrett Vercoe
Architecture School Council Secretary: Trenton Rhodes
Architecture School Council Treasurer: Bridget Thornberry
Commerce Council
Commerce Council President: Jason Kramer
Commerce Council Vice President: Taylor Cobb
Commerce Council Treasurer: Mattias Pinto
College Council
College Council President: Dre Dilao
College Council Vice President: Jacklyn Chen
College Council Secretary: vacant
College Council Treasurer: Aditya Sarkar
Education Council
Education Council President: vacant
Education Council Vice President & Secretary: Alexa Quinn
Education Council Academic Affairs Chair: vacant
Education Council Communications Chair: vacant
Student Health Insurance Committee Representative: vacant
Education Council Undergraduate Community Service Chair: vacant
Education Council Undergraduate Inter-school Relations Chair: vacant
Education Council Undergraduate Social Chair: vacant
Education Council Undergraduate Scholarship and Professional Development Chair: vacant
Education Council Graduate Community Service Chair: vacant
Education Council Graduate Inter-school Relations Chair: vacant
Education Council Graduate Social Chair: vacant
Nursing Student Council
Nursing Student Council President: Julia Whitehead
Nursing Student Council Vice President: Lance Hardcastle
Nursing Student Council Secretary: vacant
Nursing Student Council Social Committee Chair: vacant
Nursing Student Council Treasurer: vacant
University Judiciary Committee
Judiciary Undergraduate Architecture Representative: Jackson Key, Mark Felice
Judiciary Undergraduate Arts and Sciences Representative: Gabby Cox, Shannon Cason, Chirag Kulkarni
Judiciary Batten Representative: vacant
Judiciary Commerce Representative: Mahathi Kambham
Judiciary Graduate Education Representative: Al Ahmed
Judiciary Engineering and Applied Sciences Representative: Camille Cooper, Justin Robinson
Judiciary Medicine Representative: vacant
Judiciary Nursing Representative: Lindsey Sweet, Joria Le
Batten Undergraduate Council
Batten Undergraduate Council President: Ryan Alexander
Batten Undergraduate Council Director of Communications: vacant
Batten Undergraduate Council Treasurer: vacant
Batten Graduate Council
Batten Graduate Council President: Trent Chinnaswamy
Batten Graduate Council Special Events Chair: Natalie Moore, Wittney Skigen
Batten Graduate Council Treasurer: vacant
Batten Graduate Council Community Engagement Chair: Tatenda Mabikacheche
Batten Graduate Council Secretary: vacant
Engineering Student Council
Engineering Student Council President: Allison Horenberg
Engineering Student Council Vice President: Camryn Burley
Engineering Student Council Secretary: Jen Marchibroda
Engineering Student Council Treasurer: Catherine Barton
Engineering Council
Engineering Council Fourth Year Board President: Erin Barrett
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