The online voting period for the Student Government Association (SGA) First-Year Senator elections opened last Friday, Sept. 19. First-years placed their votes in ranked order for three candidates: Christina Brook ’18, April Poole ’18, and Jin Sohn ’18. When the polls closed twenty-four hours later, it was announced that Brook and Sohn would be placed into the two open positions.
145 votes — representing 25% of the Class of 2018 — were cast. This year’s elections utilized the same “rank ballot” system that started last year, allowing students to rank their desired candidate in order of preference. The SGA also added a “None of the above” option this year, which, according to SGA Elections Council Chair Nick Warren ’15, is supposed to allow “students to still feel involved without having to choose [a candidate].”
Each candidate was given a fifty dollar campaign budget to spend. Poole decided against using this money and instead focused on “meeting as many people as possible” because of the small number of candidates there were running.
“Last year, when I ran, there were eight candidates,” former First-Year Senator Karina Toy ’17 said. “I went up to everyone and introduced myself and hung posters everywhere.”
Toy led the First-Year Committee with former fellow senator Wenhao Yu ’17 with the goal of creating a more cohesive class for first-years. The Committee is responsible for organizing events for first-years such as Atwater dinners.
The newly elected Brook explained that she has never been involved with a student government organization of any kind. “None of the schools that I attended ever had something remotely similar,” Brook said.
Brook wanted to pursue a position where she could have an impact and stated that her interest stemmed from the “way students could voice their opinions regarding the inner-workings of relevant issues on campus and within this community.” Brook plans to reach out to her fellow peers and address the issues they believe to be pressing matters. She also would like to address “the way in which freshmen interact with upperclassmen, predominantly regarding discussing major/minor possibilities, academics, and student organizations.”
According to Warren and Toy, the primary job of the Senators is to represent the opinions of their class and to voice these opinions when proposing legislation and working with administrators. With her term completed, Toy offers parting words of advice for Brook and Sohn: “Talk to people. Never be afraid to ask questions and always pursue your own legislative interests.”
