After a week of sidewalks chalked with campaign ads and neon paper tents atop Eickhoff tables, students voted in this year’s Student Government elections on Tuesday, April 9. The results from the election were posted that evening in the Brower Student Center outside the SG Cube.
This year, 1,806 students voted in the elections, making it the hugest turnout ever, according to Matthew Wells, sophomore SG alternate student trustee.
“We hope to break the 2,000 mark next year,” Wells said. “That’s our next goal.” To encourage students to vote, SG set up laptops in Eickhoff for students to vote on between 8 a.m. and 7 p.m.
The SG president serves as the chief executive officer, as well as the lead spokesperson for Student Government. Serving in this position next year will be junior English and Chinese double major Tyler Liberty. Working alongside Liberty as executive vice president will be Daria Wells.
Assisting the executive officers next year will be the Cabinet members. Thomas Verga was elected to be vice president of administration and finance. Elected along with him were Jen Toth as vice president of advancement, Adam Bonanno as vice president of academic affairs, Michell Lin as vice president of student services, Alex Brown as vice president of governmental affairs, Jillian McCarthy as vice president of community relations, Sadia Tahir as vice president of equity and diversity, and Ryan Boyne as alternate student trustee.
Each graduating class is represented by the executive officers and the cabinet members, as well as their individual class councils. Elected to the senior class council were Grace Moran as president, Santina Mazzola as vice president, Katrina Xyloportas as secretary, and Josephine D’Amico as treasurer.
President Brian Garsh, Vice President Lori Paolini, Secretary Mary Bessemer, and Treasurer Kruthika Ramesh were elected to the junior class council.
Representing the Class of 2016 on the sophomore class council will be President Shap Bahary, Vice President Matt Dotsey, Secretary Emily Montagna, and Treasurer, Sofia Gomez.
All SG positions have a term of one year, with the exception of the alternate student trustee, which has a two-year term. Most candidates ran contested, according to Wells.
“I won by two votes,” said Susan Knox, freshman chemistry major and newly elected Senator of Science. “You always think your vote doesn’t actually matter, but every vote matters.”
While campaigning, Knox primarily used social media. She created and posted campaign flyers in addition to sending messages to supporters the morning of the election.
“When I won I was very excited,” she said. “I got a text message and I jumped up out of my chair and started screaming down the hall. I am really looking forward to the experience.”
Knox says she is looking forward to working with the other Senators of Science and Dean Osborn, as well as current science majors in order to hear what they are hoping to gain from their experience at the College.
Along with Knox, Michael Chiumento, Katelyn Dombrowski, Chloe Fama and Kevin Bazer were also elected to the position of senators of Science.
Kristen Speigel, Deborah Wu, Sam Tomczyk, Jason Kalvin and Robbie Nunes are the new senators of Business.
Representing the school of Humanities and Social Sciences as senators are Anushka Patel, Joey DiCarlo, Jessica Glynn, Catherine Tung, Kathryn Picardo, Kyle Brands and Suzanna Conroy-Bray.
In addition, Nicole Ferrito and Ashley Schmitt were elected as the senators of Arts and Communication. Jaimie DeMarco and Nicole Grabowski are the senators of Education, Maria Spinosi and Daniela Verdugo are the senators of Nursing, Health and Exercise Science, and Jeff Owens and Roberto Cortinas are the senators of Engineering.
Elected to the position of senators-at-large were Brittany Kirk, Ingrid Nunn and Alexa Lago.
