Penn's student government announced the election results for a slate of Undergraduate Assembly and Class Board 2023 positions on Wednesday evening.
Wharton freshman Derek Nhieu will serve as president of Class Board 2023, winning with 296 votes to runner-up College freshman David Garnick's 228 votes. College freshman Dylan Conrad won the race for executive vice president with 353 votes to runner-up Engineering freshman Jonah Burian's 273 votes.
This year also marks the first time Penn has reserved a position specifically for transfer students. The Nominations and Elections Committee made the policy change in April to guarantee transfer student representation in the UA, and this election was the first in which the change was implemented.
College sophomore Thomas Kaupas won the new transfer student representative election, winning against his three opponents with 31 votes. Only transfer students could vote in the election.
Kaupas said he is excited to use his platform to elevate the voices of transfer students through the governing body.
The NEC also held elections for UA New Student Representatives.
The eight New Student Representative seats on the Undergraduate Assembly will be filled by freshmen Carson Sheumaker, Jonah Schenk, Thomas Kyong, Sachit Gali, Gabriela Montes, Isabella Hassett, David Garnick, Alfredo Wolfermann.
A special election was also held to fill the four Engineering representative seats on the UA that were left vacant after only one candidate ran a successful write-in campaign in April. However this year, no candidates ran for the vacant seats, leaving the four Engineering seats still open.
NEC Vice Chair for Elections and Wharton senior Elizabeth Vinton said one Engineering student filed a successful write-in petition, but did not turn in the relevant spending forms, which kept them off the ballot.
Another special election for the vacant UA Engineering seats will be planned for the future, although Vinton said she does not yet know when the election will occur.
Vinton said there was increased turnout for this election compared to last year and strong participation from transfer students, which she attributes to collaboration with Penn's Transfer Student Organization.
"I'm really excited about the fact that we had four transfers decide to run for ... a seat we've never had before," Vinton said.
Vinton said the NEC's promotions with local businesses such as coffee shop United By Blue, frozen yogurt bar Kiwi, and restaurant Hummus also helped increase turnout.
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