UA election low on candidates

Only 29 students filed petitions by the Monday deadline announcing their intentions to run for the 25 seats available on the Undergraduate Assembly. And this number is barely half as many students as applied for the body last year. Chairperson of Elections on the Nominations and Elections Committee Jim Strangio said last night that 21 out of the 33 current UA members are not seeking reelection this year. Both Strangio and UA Chairperson Seth Hamalian said they are surprised with the low interest in running for the assembly this year. "It was less than I expected," said Strangio, an Engineering junior. "It was surprising because the same amount of advertising went in that always went in. "I'm still trying to figure it out," he added. Hamalian, a College junior, gave three main reasons as to why such a large percentage of incumbents are not running again. Seniors who are graduating and those who could not make the time commitment are two of those categories. "A lot of people saw the UA as too divided," Hamalian cited as his third reason. "They didn't want to put their time and effort into an organization which was distraught with apparent, but not necessarily actual, division." Strangio said last year's 55 candidates was an unusually high pool for an election. That number can be attributed to the development of the Coalition for Responsive Student Government, an organization started in December 1992, which hoped to improve student government on campus. Strangio said the normal year-to-year comparison should not be based, though, on last year's figures which included 20 candidates who ran on the Coalition's slate. "This year is really typical," he said. "It's sad but true." "It is probably due to the apathy of the student body and the feeling about student government on campus," Strangio added. Eighteen candidates are vying for the 15 seats available in the College of Arts and Sciences. Nine candidates will run for the six UA positions from the Wharton School of Business. But only two people are running for the three seats in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. No Nursing School students are participating in this year's election to fill the one available seat. Strangio said write-in campaigns could fill these positions, though. If 28 Engineering students or 13 Nursing students vote for a write-in candidate from their respective schools, that candidate could win the election. "Unless there are enough write-in votes, the spots will go empty until the fall elections," Strangio said. "Freshmen run for the freshmen seats then, and non-freshmen would be allowed to run for the Engineering and Nursing spots."