Freshmen prepare for SA elections

    Members of the College of William and Mary’s classes of 2011 and 2014 will vote Thursday for their class representatives in the Student Assembly after weeks of campaigning.

    Members of the class of 2011 will vote for a single open senate seat. Three students are running to fill the seat, left open in the absence of Josh Karp ’11, who resigned this past summer.

    Twenty-three freshmen are vying for nine open seats in the SA, including an unopposed secretary race and a six-way race for president. Despite this large number of candidates, however, no run-off election will be held. According to SA election rules, whichever candidate wins a majority of the votes is awarded the seat.

    To help guide prospective freshman candidates through the campaign and election process, the SA utilized the Special Elections Commission. This commission is formed for every election, although it was specifically crafted for the current election to assist freshman candidates with the potentially confusing process of running for office, as well as to monitor both the freshman and senior class elections.

    This commission, appointed by SA president Chrissy Scott ’11 and composed of Curt Mills ’13, David Murphy ’12, Betty Jeanne Manning ’11, Jill Olzewski ’12 and Michael Douglass ’11, educated the candidates on campaign rules and regulations, in addition to holding information sessions on the process of campaigning and responsibilities of each office.

    The commission also held candidate meet-and-greet events in freshman halls, events designed to help freshmen voters better know their prospective representatives.

    Murphy, upon meeting the candidates, said he was impressed by the freshmen who were running for office, and not worried about the outcome of the election.

    “I think no matter who is elected, all of the candidates involved seem extremely motivated and would do a good job and [are] doing it for the right reasons,” he said

    During last year’s freshmen election cycle, the SA was forced to delay the voting process by one week due to low turnout of candidacy deglarations by the deadline. The bill, titled the Fall 2009 Elections Delay Act, allowed other student body members an extra week to announce their intention to run for the SA.

    Scott also urged freshmen to make a strong showing Thursday.

    “Vote, make sure all of your friends vote, and read the ballot statements,” she said.

    2010 Student Assembly candidates
    President
    Chandler Crenshaw
    Virginia Lee
    Tamara Middleton
    Sami Mirimiri
    Jonathan “Jay” Miutz
    Jake Schneider

    VP Advocacy
    Alexandra “Alex” Comerford
    Raquel “Alex” Phillips
    Benjamin Reynolds
    Iman Shakeri

    VP Social Affairs
    Megan McCarthy
    Kelly Stosch

    Treasurer
    Melissa Alim
    John Andrianos
    Jackson “Jack” Crum
    Brett Prestia

    Secretary
    Taylor Feenstra

    Senator
    Austen Brower
    Matthew Giattino
    Chase Koontz
    David “Dallen” McNerney
    Matthew Paganussi
    David Wasserstein

    2011 Senator
    Gregory “Bert” Mueller
    Shepherd “Shep” Walker
    David Witkowsky

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