Eight new members were elected to the Student Assembly Sept. 30, including the class of 2018 president, two senators for the class of 2017, and five representatives of the class of 2019. Voter turnout was higher for every participating class than the previous election.
The class of 2019 elected Jonah Yesowitz ’19 to serve as its class president. Yesowitz received 250 votes, which was 27 percent of the total for class president. Nine candidates, including Yesowitz, ran in the presidential race. Yesowitz’s campaign strategy included creating his own website with information about his future plans. According to Yesowitz, his main focus while class president is to help the class of 2019 get to know each other.
“My biggest goal is to bring the freshman class together,” Yesowitz said. “I have a bunch of different programs that I think can do that effectively. I really just want to make sure that everyone is getting involved and participating, so that we can all come up with great ideas together.”
Samyuktha Mahadevan ’19 received the second highest percentage of votes for class of 2019 president with 13 percent.
Shannon Dutchie ’19, Alexis Payne ’19, Sikander Zakriya ’19 and Brendan Boylan ’19 were elected to fill the class of 2019 senator positions out of 14 possible candidates. Dutchie received the highest number of votes, securing 13 percent of cast ballots.
Voter turnout for the freshman class election was the highest in years with 61.13 percent casting ballots. This rate is up 9.16 percent from last year’s freshman class elections. Moreover, more freshmen cast ballots during this freshman election than in the past four years of freshman elections.
Additionally, the class of 2018 filled its vacant class president position by electing Laini Boyd ’18. Boyd received 27 percent of votes. Runner-up Evan Defraine ’18 received 172 votes, or 23 percent of votes.
“As the president of the class, I really want to get all of us involved and be together, especially in community engagement,” Boyd said. “I want to find initiatives to be together and to get to know each other and also the community of Williamsburg.”
48.93 percent of the class of 2018 decided to vote. Compared to spring elections, the voter turnout rate was up 4.3 percent.
The class of 2017 elected TJ Soroka ’17 and Daniel Sequeira ’17 to fill its two vacant senate positions out of seven possible candidates. Soroka received 30 percent of the vote, and Sequeira received 16 percent.
The newest class of 2017 senators was elected by 1541 voters —39.45 percent of the class of 2017. This voter turnout rate is only up 0.48 percent from last spring’s elections, which saw a 38.97 percent voter turnout.
SA Vice President Catie Pinkerton ’16 said she was excited about adding eight new members and how they will contribute to the SA.
“We’re really excited to have all of our new SA members, and we’re excited to see what they’ll bring to the table,” Pinkerton said.
Newly elected SA members will attend their first meeting Tuesday evening.
