Even as the U.S. presidential election remains unresolved, Student Council announced seven newly elected College representatives last night.
Fourteen candidates ran for the seven available seats, with Nick Jabbour, Steven E. Looke, Connie Dong, Andy Lilienthal, Brian Maxted, Roger "Ronnie" Mayhew Jr. and Micah Schwartz obtaining the highest number of votes.
Voter turnout was lower than expected, with only 14.6 percent of College students - 1,346 voters - casting a ballot in the election. Last year about 27.5 percent of College students voted.
The low voter turnout can be attributed to a smaller number of candidates than in previous years, Elections Committee Co-Chairman Jonathan Bertsch said.
"We had 23 candidates last fall" while this year there were only 14, Bertsch said.
The fall election tends to be smaller than the spring election because it is only for the College and not the whole student body, he said.
Another factor contributing to low turnout could be that an e-mail message was not sent around to all College students reminding them to vote, he added.
"Voter turnout was as good as can be expected," Election Committee Co-Chairwoman Kimi White said.
Bertsch said first years came out to vote in record numbers, which bodes well for the future of University elections.
The Class of 2004 will have its first representative on Council with the election of first-year College student Andy Lilienthal, Bertsch said.
The seven new representatives will join eight others from the College who were elected last spring.
The newly elected members will take office in January.
"The new representatives have some big shoes to fill," Council President Joe Bilby said. "In December, we are losing some of our strongest members: Nathan A. Cook, Brett Gibson, Mario Sculatti and Boots Dunlap."
Council Executive Vice President Matt Madden said he is looking forward to working with the new representatives.
"Many of them seem really excited about new projects to work on in the next year," Madden said. "The representative body has been doing a lot of work this year, but it's always great to get new ideas."
Nick Jabbour, who was re-elected to Council, said he has a number of projects to work on in the coming year, noting that the fall semester calendar is not very friendly to University students.
"Fall semester is compressed and hectic," Jabbour said. He proposes students begin school a week earlier in August and receive a week off for Thanksgiving as well as some federal holidays off in return.
Jabbour is chairman of the Legislative Affairs Committee and would like students to have a greater voice in the General Assembly.
He plans to protest a bill before the General Assembly requiring state schools to admit at least 67 percent in-state students.
"Students can have a real impact" in the decision, Jabbour said.
Second-year student Connie Dong said she has two major items on her agenda dealing with dining services for her term as a college representative.
"First, I want to make Plus Dollars roll over from year to year," Dong said. "Second, I will try and work with the school and ARAmark to get a Plus Dollar Unlimited choice added to the meal plan."
"I look forward to working with the rest of Council," she said. "I'm ready to be a part of the team"
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