News Briefs

BoE verifies results of freshman election

The Board of Elections (BoE) evaluated the results of the freshman class presidential election using the Single Transferable Vote (STV) system the day after the highly contested results were announced at the Oct. 8 Student Council (StuCo) meeting.

After disqualified candidate Saul Garlick's votes were transferred, the results still supported Christal Ng as the winner with a total of 114 votes.

"We transferred Saul's votes after we announced the winner," said BoE co-chair Mary Keough, "because of the great controversy over the election results and because we felt that it was only right that we validate Christal as the rightful winner of the election, since there was some speculation on whether or not she was."

According to BoE computer expert Richard Aseltine, who conducted the STV process using Microsoft Excel, the procedure was "pretty simple."

Aseltine said he performed the transfers five times to verify his results.

The process involved "distribut[ing] all of the votes cast with Garlick in the #1 position to the candidates in the #2 position," according to Keough.

Keough expressed confidence in the fairness and validity of the election outcome.

"The Board feels that the elections were run fairly, as is our goal for each election," said Keough. "We do not deny that there is room to improve on publicity and the programming itself for the upcoming spring elections, changes we already have in the works."

-- By Julianna Finelli

Middle East expert discusses U.S. military

Yossi Olmert, a member of both The Foundation for Defense of Democracy and of the Institute of Counter Terrorism, spoke in response to the two dominant forces of terrorism in the world on Monday, Oct. 21. With a focus on Middle Eastern terrorism and the common terrorist threat face by the United States and Israel, Olmert shared his position and insight on these controversial issues.

Sponsored by CHAI, The Coalition for Hopkins Activists for Israel, and the pursuit of realistic options to effectively combat terrorism (PROTECT), the event gathered about 15 attendees.

According to Bita Azhdam, an attendee of the event and an activist at Hopkins, Olmert said an eventual war with Iraq is inevitable. If Iraq does attack Israel by using missiles or biological warfare, Olmert said he believes that the United States should encourage a non-military response on Israel's behalf.

Olmert went on to discuss the politics behind the United States discouragement of the utilization of military power. He believed the United States would ultimately increase military activity in the name of Israel, so that Israel would not have to carry the burden itself.

Azhdam said that other known speakers will be brought to campus in the future to discuss terrorism.

-- By Deva Roberts