New class board, UA reps for freshmen

Though presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain still have the last leg of campaigning and debates ahead of them, the Class of 2012 has reached the end of its election season, choosing Wharton freshman Jibran Khan and College freshman Shri Chauhan to be its president and vice president.

Khan received 497 votes, defeating College freshman Cornelius Range and Wharton freshman Federico Nusymowicz.

In the VP race, Chauhan edged out Wharton freshman Nancy Zhang and College freshman Joseph Lawless.

New class board members include: College freshman Adam Alexander Hamilton as vice president for corporate sponsorship; College and Wharton freshman Cecilia Sun as secretary; College freshman Ariella Chivil as treasurer; College freshmen Amanda Young and Fatmata Kabia as the School of Arts and Sciences representatives; Nursing freshman Caitlin O'Neill as the Nursing representative; Engineering freshman Tom Hartford as the SEAS representative; and Wharton and College freshman Penny Metchev as the Wharton representative.

Although Range lost the class' presidential election, he was elected to the Undergraduate Assembly with 466 votes, the highest total of any candidate and a feat that earned him a seat on the University Council.

"I look forward to working with Cornelius on UC and of course the rest of the freshmen," said UA member and College sophomore Mark Peter Pan, who is also on UC.

Hamilton and Chivil, the class treasurer, will be joined on the UA by Wharton freshman Faye Cheng, Engineering freshman Emily Shaeffer, College freshman Andrew Lum, College freshman Ka Kui Cheng and Wharton freshman Triston Francis.

In the election for the UA's open SEAS seat, Engineering senior Brandon Park won the election with 72 votes.

Chivil was nearly disqualified after Wharton freshman Ray Tran, who was also running for treasurer, filed a violation against her. Tran claimed Chivil had put two signs on one tree outside Hill College House, a violation of the Nominations and Elections committee rule that "candidates may only affix a maximum of one poster per object, including trees."

Tran presented photographs dated Sept. 21, which showed two of Chivil's posters attached to the tree. He also claimed that the posters remained on the tree until the end of the election week.

At the hearing, he said, "if you had enough time to [use] markers for the poster and actually make it, you would have enough time to abide by the rules."

Chivil said she was not aware that she might have broken rules until she received the e-mail informing her that a violation had been filed. "I followed the rules and my surrogates followed the rules. There is no reason for me, and anyone that supported me, to do this. It is clearly in violation and makes no sense to do so," she said.

The NEC did not find Chivil in violation of the Fair Practices Code, and she was appointed to the UA and the class board.

Not everyone, however, was moved to cast a vote.

Despite the heightened campus focus on national voter registration the number of students voting dropped from 67.1 percent last year to 62.3 percent this year.

NEC chairwoman and College junior Brittany Stark said, "As much as I wished it had, I do not think the enthusiasm for the national Presidential race trickled down to [student government] elections. If anything, it may have had an adverse impact since it's possible that when hearing or seeing the words "vote" or "elections," students automatically assume it is in relation to the presidential race."

She added that the NEC actually expanded the ways it usually promotes student awareness of the UA and class board elections.

Despite the decline in voting, she still found turnout to be at a "respectable" level.

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