With a great increase in voter participation compared to previous years, students in the College elected six new Student Council representatives.
Of the 23 candidates running for the six slots, second-year Juli Verma received the largest number of votes with 895. Second-year Brett Gibson received 893 votes, Nathan A. Cook, a second year and incumbent College representative, received 744 votes, second-year Boots Dunlap received 730 votes, second-year Kristen Jones received 724 votes and second-year Kelly Harris received 629. A total of 2,526 students voted, for a 27.5 percent voter turnout - a marked increase over last year's 7 percent fall election participation rate.
Elections Committee Chairwoman Nancy Peterson attributed the voter increase to a number of factors, including the large number of candidates, increased publicity and the efforts of the Elections Committee.
"You can attribute it to a lot of different things, but you have to attribute it to the student body," Peterson said. "They are the people that sat down in front of the computer and voted."
Committee Vice Chairman Jonathan Bertsch said he "couldn't be more pleased with the way the election turned out."
In the spring elections, 3,656 students voted from all schools of the University. Only College students voted in this week's election.
Two of the only three incumbent candidates seeking re-election were unsuccessful in their bids for Council seats.
College Rep. Brendan Dignan finished eighth with 520 votes. College Rep. Justin Pfeiffer received 447 votes, finishing 13th.
Cook said he has high hopes for his second term.
"This term I intend to do my best to represent the interests of the student body as a whole," he said.
He added that he plans to focus on the issues of safety, increased publicity for Council and attempts to build a new student activities center.
College Rep.-elect Brett Gibson said he also was elated about his victory.
"I'm very excited about this opportunity, but now it is time to celebrate," Gibson said.
He said he plans to do his best to represent the groups that endorsed him.
"I'm excited to serve the excellent people of the University," he added.
Peterson said she does not anticipate any appeals of the election results.
The referendum proposed by the College Advisory Board - which makes College Council, Honor and University Judiciary Committee representatives Advisory Board members - also passed with a total of 994 votes for, 158 votes against and 1,374 abstentions.
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