The Undergraduate Assembly has a new team at its helm.
The Nominations and Elections Committee announced College junior Jane Meyer and College sophomore Ray Clark as the new president and vice president of the UA, respectively, on Friday night.
Meyer won the position of UA president with 1192 points, almost twice that of her opponent, College junior Aidan McConnell. Clark won his election with 1930 out of the total 4180 points. There were no Fair Practices Code violations this year, reported by the NEC — a stark decrease from the four from last year's election.
“We’re definitely excited about the fact that there were no FPC violations; it’’s really good to see a clean-cut campaign,” NEC Chair Devin Grossman said.
“I’m so excited I can’t speak,” Clark said. For next year, he hopes to work with the student body to build on current projects.
“We hope that we can make a lot of gains on the mental health projects that we started last year," Clark said.
Meyer shares Clark’s enthusiasm and optimism for the upcoming year. “This has been a tough election week, but it’s been great meeting new people … I’m so excited for next year," she said. "So many amazing people have been elected for next year. Great ideas — a lot of passion.”
One of her main platforms is sexual assault prevention and improving Penn Anti-Violence Educators Program. She hopes to implement a UA Liaison to the Office of Sexual Assault Prevention and Education. She also hopes to improve Penn trust and protect open expression in the classroom, among other things.
“I can’t wait to hear all the ideas of the members represented today as well,” Meyer said.
This year there was a 39 percent voter turnout, a decrease from last year, following a three day opening for voting.
Michelle Xu, Natasha Galperin and Michael Karam received positions following Clark and Meyer's victories. College sophomore David Kahana, who had won a position as a College representative and was runner-up for UA vice president, voluntarily terminated his candidacy prior to the results announcement.
Furthermore, this year, every incumbent member of the 2016 Class Board was reelected
“I am so exited senior class. We’re going to have the absolute best time next year. We’ve got so many things planned … I couldn’t be more thrilled,” said 2016 Class Board President Jesus Perez. This will be his third time serving as 2016 President.
The UA has high hopes for the next year. Full results can be seen at http://www.penn-nec.org/documents/2015/03/spring-2015-official-results.pdf
Correction: A previous version of this article stated that all three UA College Representative runners up received positions following Clark and Meyer's victories when in fact none of them received positions in the UA. The DP regrets this error.
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