Midd Briefs ISO Elects Officers Online

Author: Nicolas Emery

The International Student Organization (ISO) has announced the results of its 2003-2004 student election: Sumaya Huque '06 (Bangladesh) is the president-elect and Alvin Lam '06 (Hong Kong) and Zsofia Young '06 (Hungary) are the vice-presidents for the upcoming academic year. ISO Advisor and Associate Dean of Student Affairs Kathy Foley-Giorgio and current ISO president Namik Kirlic '05 confirmed the results of the on-line election on April 9.
The initial on-line poll resulted in the election of as president and Lam as vice-president. However, since the ISO constitution calls for two vice-presidents, another poll was conducted which resulted in the election of Young as the second vice-president. Huque garnered 42 votes for president while Lam received 57 in the initial vice-president election and Young won 30 votes in the second.
This was the first year that the ISO held its elections online.
Some of the issues Huque raised in her letter of intent include a desire to increase support for international first-years and to bring back the ISO bulletin board in McCullough in order to increase the organization's visibility and broadcasts its events.
According to its Web site, the ISO, a student organization with members from 80 countries, "seeks to broaden students' perspectives regarding foreign affairs and to introduce foreign cultures and traditions to the college community."
"I will try my best to make ISO a happier and brighter place," said Huque, "a place of security and belonging for all the international students on campus, as it has done for me my freshman year.
"I'm very pleased with their enthusiasm," said Kirlic of the election winners. "I think they have a lot of ideas, and they are very much on top of things [for next year] which is encouraging. It's a young board, but I don't think that will be a problem as they can fill their committees with experienced members. They're very enthusiastic about the ISO."