Undergraduate Assembly names election winners

The members of the next year's Undergraduate Assembly were announced last night, and immediately after the results, four members threw their hats into the ring to run for chair of the body. Virtually every incumbent who ran in the three-day election last week won a seat on the body, in an election which drew only 19 percent of eligible students, according to Nominations and Elections Committee chairperson Marcus Causey. The membership of the entire steering committee, including chairperson, vice-chairperson treasurer, secretary and two nominees for University Council steering representative, will be decided at the UA's "transitional meeting" tomorrow. The four members who announced their candidacy for the chair were Allison Bieber, You-Lee Kim, Andrew Tsai and Mitch Winston. All four are sophomores running for a position which is typically awarded to a junior. Elections for the steering committee, which is decided by the membership of the UA in debate-style proceedings, typically run upwards of four to five hours, and several student leaders said they expect a competitive race this year. After the announcement of the winners, Kim proposed a debate between the candidates for chair tomorrow night, but each of the other three declined. "There's no point in debating before a four-hour debate," Bieber said. Kim said she was "disappointed" by the candidates' unwillingness to debate, calling it "an insult to the student body." At the beginning of the meeting, three candidates were charged with not turning in financial statements, required by the NEC to ensure that no candidate spends more than $32 on campaign materials. "This is the biggest thing people get charged and disqualified for," Causey said. After over 30 minutes of deliberations, the NEC exonerated two of the three candidates, Jose Carrion and Josephine Lee, but neither won seats on the body. The third candidate, Glenn Kaplan, was not present at the hearing to defend himself and was disqualified. Causey said the deliberations, during which two-thirds of the entire 19 member NEC must vote to disqualify, took less time than previous years. He said that two years ago, the deliberations lasted until well after 2 a.m. Winners from the College, in order of vote totals, were Allison Bieber, Mitch Winston, You-Lee Kim, Jeremy Lutsky, Jeff Lichtman, Dave Rose, Jeff Gross, Kirsten Bartok, Orly Steinberg, Jen Berrent, Lee Egerman, Eric Palace, Jo Jo Graves, Brian Bora, Sandor Hau, and David Chun. Elected from Wharton were Andrew Tsai, Ethan Youderian, Beth Azia, Steve Alexander, and Rachel Caplan. Members representing the Engineering School, who were all guaranteed seats since only three candidates ran for the three available seats, were Toby Dengel, Jean Havens, and Ankita Rhoden. Representatives who were elected to University Council, President Sheldon Hackney's advisory body, are Allison Bieber, Andrew Tsai, Toby Dengel, Ethan Youderian, You-Lee Kim and Mitch Winston.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.