The winners of the class of 2005 elections were President Ben Radel, Vice President Megan Coe, Secretary/Treasurer Shannon Chang and Representatives Morgan MacDonald, Charles Reyner and Manu Sharma. There were seven candidates for president, four for vice president, two for secretary/treasurer and seven for representative. The elections were held from 12 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 8 and the results were announced on Tuesday at the weekly Student Council meeting.
Freshman Michael Cho, one of the candidates for the presidency, said, "I thought the election was very fair. The ranking system benefited both the voters and the candidates."
Each candidate had to have his/her petition signed by at least 10 percent of the freshman class. Candidates had a $100 budget to spend during the week-long campaign period.
They hung campaign posters around the campus and tried to inform the freshmen class about their positions on critical issues in the election. Candidates wrote approximately 200-word candidate statements for The News-Letter about their platforms. They also made one minute video taped campaign speeches, which were played for voters on Tuesday in the lobby of Wolman and outside of MegaBYTES. Candidates were also required to attend several student council meetings.
Many of the newly-elected Student Council officers were excited to begin fulfilling their roles and commented on the most important issues in the election.
After the results were announced, Radel said, "I'd just like to say thank you to everyone, and we hope to do you proud. We want to help make Levering into a student union and bring outside music onto campus aside from the Spring Fair and work with the Student Council on [improving] the living wage of regular workers like janitors and clerks."
Coe said, "I'm very happy with the way the election turned out. I can't wait to get started and I'm ready to work hard. I'm already involved in some of the Student Council committees. I especially want to work on social programming and getting events planned."
Reyner believes a bulletin of club meetings and other events should be created and posted as soon as possible to increase awareness of the activities on campus. Hundreds of students voted outside of MegaBYTES, in the lobby of Wolman Hall, and on the Q-Level of the Milton S. Eisenhower Library. The voting process was computerized. Students had to swipe their JCards to vote and ranked each of the candidates in order of their preference.
The Freshman Student Council Candidates Forum was held on Thursday, Oct. 18. This year, after the candidates gave their speeches, there was a Student Council members/administrators panel that directed questions at the candidates. Many of the critical issues in the campaign were discussed such as expanding the hours for students on meal plans to meal exchange, making it possible to meal exchange at the Levering Market and the Jay Store, creating a student union, expanding shuttle services, organizing a freshman social board to plan social events on campus and improving student involvement on campus and in Baltimore.
Freshman Sophia Shakur said, "I think some of the ideas that the candidates are proposing may not be realistic goals, but at least they are willing and ready to make changes on campus."
Freshman Toliy Samoylov, one of the candidates for president said, "The election was very organized as far as the rules and regulations...I think the election represented the opinions of the students who voted, although many [students] didn't take it seriously. I hope that improves over the next few years."
Staff writers Liz Steinberg and Julie Tremaine contributed to this report.
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