Over 33 percent of the student body voted in last week’s on-line Georgetown University Student Association class representative election, an increase from last year’s 28.5 percent voter turnout.
According to Will Cosmas (CAS ‘01), GUSA election commissioner, the on-line election ran without problems.
“Voting on-line lets us concentrate on our real jobs, as [the system is] 100 percent reliable,” Cosmas said.
Last year the server shut down for nearly an hour, pushing back the scheduled poll closure.
Students received an e-mail with a link to the GUSA election web-site along with a specific identification number to allow them to vote. Once they had logged onto the Saxa server site, students were required to enter the identification number to vote.
Over 50 percent of the first year class voted in the election. Sanju Kumar (MSB ‘04), Anthony Marinello (CAS ‘04), Emily Sun (SFS ‘04) and Somil Trivedi (CAS ‘04) were elected as sophomore representatives.
The four first-year representatives were all incumbents. Sun captured 444 votes, the most votes a GUSA representative candidate has ever received.
“The high turnout [of the first year class] shows they really care about what happens on campus. This is very encouraging,”Cosmas said.
Over 34 percent of the sophomore class voted in the Assembly election. From the sophomore candidates, Ted Bauer (CAS ‘03), Mary D’Ariano (NUR ‘03), Marty LaFalce (CAS ‘03) and Trey Street (SFS ‘03) were elected.
With only 18 percent voting, members of the junior class cast the fewest votes in the election.
The junior class elected Ben Anderson (CAS ‘02), Meaghan Keeler (SFS ‘02), Keavney Klein (NUR ‘02) and Steve Glickman (CAS ‘02) as representatives.
The on-line election allowed the 350 students studying abroad to both cast their votes and run in the GUSA election. Keeler is the first representative ever elected while studying abroad.
D’Ariano said the election was run well, though she received concerns that students were not well-informed about all candidates and the voting process. D’Ariano suggested a list of all candidates be posted on campus next year.
According to Marinello, one of the most immediate concerns for GUSA is the renovation of Village C Formal Lounge to provide a student recreation center.
Marinello also said GUSA must work to ensure designation of adequate student space on campus in the Southwest Quadrangle.
“I’m really excited about the upcoming year, because we have so many opportunities to make changes,” Marinello said.
Junior representatives, D’Ariano and Bauer said they plan to work on issues such as the One Card, a card that unifies all university payment and identification cards and an extended weekend schedule for the GUTS bus.
Glickman said he hopes students come to GUSA to centralize concerns.
“I’d like to see students have more say in the 10 year plan, the allocation of student space, and recruiting faculty from a variety of ethnic backgrounds,” Glickman said.
The 12 new representatives were sworn in at Tuesday’s GUSA meeting by Ryan DuBose (CAS ‘02) and Brian Walsh (CAS ‘02), GUSA president and vice-president.
