Freshmen to elect UA members

The freshmen are coming -- to the Undergraduate Assembly that is. Freshmen elections will take place today and tomorrow to select eight first-year students for the student government body. This year, 36 students are vying for eight spaces, an increase of three candidates from last year's freshman elections. The eight representatives will not be based on which school the students are enrolled in, since students in each of the four undergraduate schools already chose their respective representatives last year. Nominations and Elections Committee Elections Chairperson Molly Duncan said these eight student positions were created "just to make sure freshmen are elected and represented." The top vote-getter automatically gets a University Council seat, she added. At last night's UA meeting, UA Chairperson and Wharton junior Dan Debicella announced that there would be training sessions for the first two to three weeks after elections. These sessions will be information-packed, Debicella said, so newly-elected freshmen members can be "assimilated more quickly." The results of the elections will be announced at Thursday's Fair Practice Code hearing, where grievances filed by Tuesday night's deadline will be heard. Referring to charges that could be filed against this year's candidates, Duncan explained that the NEC does "not look for guilt, we look for [candidates] biasing the election grossly." NEC members will then decide whether the candidate is still qualified after both sides are heard, she added. Several students said last week that they do not feel informed about the election process or about the candidates. "Everyone is running for them and people have been talking to me [about-signing petitions]," said College freshman Rachel Kohen. "But they haven't been discussing issues." "I really don't know much about it," College freshman Adam Falkowitz said. "It's some sort of student government." Others said there is insufficient basis to vote for a particular candidate. "I'm familiar with [the UA] and I think the election is a lot of B.S. -- how can you vote for people you don't know?" College freshman Jared Glick said. "It seems people will vote for their friends." Daniel Kushner, a College freshman, agreed. "I've heard about different people running for eight positions," Kushner said. "[As a result] I'm signing a sheet of paper -- it's ridiculous, you can forget it." The NEC will run four polling stations around campus today from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. They are: Stouffer Dining Hall, Hill House Dining Hall, Locust Walk in front of Steinberg-Dietrich Hall, and the King's Court/English House courtyard. Students can also vote from noon to 5 p.m. tomorrow on Locust Walk only. In order to vote, students must be registered for three classes.