The first-year class elected four representatives to the Georgetown University Student Association in an online election last Thursday. Philip Beer (SFS ‘05), Sean Fern (SFS ‘05), Nazareth Haysbert (CAS ‘05) and Luis Torres (CAS ‘05) were chosen in a run-off election following Tuesday’s primary.
“Being a representative is about sitting back and paying attention to everyone and everything on campus,” Beer said.
Haysbert stressed the importance of, “taking the big picture and breaking it into small parts, in order to effectively deal with issues.”
“It is important to have a vision, and be persistent. We just want what is best for the student body,” Torres said.
Fern said his main goals are a bringing a milkshake machine to New South cafeteria and paper towels and soap to all bathrooms.
“They are simply money issues, and they would satisfy many students,” Fern said.
All the representatives noted the importance of having a good working relationship with the administration.
“We must not force our ideas on them, but work to cultivate a friendly relationship,” Fern said.
Haysberth said he planned to be persistent in conveying student needs to the administration.
The election began with 17 candidates, but a primary election held Tuesday, Oct. 2 narrowed the field to eight. A debate was held Oct. 3 to provide a forum for the candidates to present their views on relevant issues. The final vote was held Oct. 4, via Saxa Server, an online voting system.
According to Steve Schohn, a Saxa Server representative, “The latest GUSA election ran well. There were no technology problems whatsoever,” Schohn said.
Technology problems have caused problems in past elections. In some instances, Saxa Server has shut down for up to an hour, causing results to be delayed or even invalidated.
This election saw a particularly high voter turnout with 57.17 percent of first-year students voting in the final election, making it the second highest turnout in GUSA election history. The highest turnout was last week’s primary election, with 62 percent of first-years participating.
Schohn attributed the high turnout to the accessibility of online voting. “This is only the second year of online elections, but already the results are incredible. Last year’s GUSA president had only a 36 percent turnout. Clearly, we’ve made great strides in just one year. I would not be surprised to see the average election turnout soon hover between 60 and 70 percent.”
