Eight freshmen elected to UA

Eight of the 35 freshman candidates for the Undergraduate Assembly emerged victorious last night. Two others were disqualified by the Nominations and Elections Committee for violating the Fair Practices Code. College freshman Eric Jackson and Engineering freshman Jessica Williams lost eligibility because they failed to submit their spending forms before the deadline. This year's top vote-getter was College freshman Vijay Chattha. He received 308 votes, according to NEC Vice Chairperson and Engineering sophomore Ben Goldberger. Wharton senior Dan Debicella, last year's UA chairperson, said this is the first time in his four years that a freshman candidate has exceeded 300 votes. The other winners were College freshmen Noah Bilenker, Samara Barend, Courtney Fine and Mark Sagat, Wharton freshmen Greg Steinberg and Bradley Coburn and Wharton and Engineering freshman Josh Lipshutz. During last night's hearing, eight candidates had the opportunity to defend themselves from NEC charges that they violated Article V, Section B, Part IV of the code, which states that all candidates must submit their spending forms within one hour of the polls' closing time. The polls closed at 5 p.m. Wednesday. One student failed to submit a complete form, and the other seven neglected to hand in a form at all. College sophomore Evan Fleck, NEC grievance officer, acted as a prosecutor, attempting to convince the NEC body that the eight candidates should be disqualified for violating the code. Without the spending form, the NEC has no way of determining if a candidate exceeded the $27 budget limit, he said. "[This wouldn't be such an issue if NEC Chairperson and Wharton senior Ning Chi Hsu] had not repeated ad nauseum that this form had to be submitted on time," Fleck added. Each candidate had four minutes to plead their case. Then NEC representatives had unlimited time to ask follow-up questions. With the exception of Jackson and Williams -- who failed to show up for the hearing -- each candidate took advantage of this opportunity. Several candidates who could not be present at the meeting had representatives read their statements. After each case was heard, the NEC took a 45-minute recess to discuss and vote on the fate of each candidate. A two-thirds vote is necessary for disqualification. Upon returning, Hsu said all the charges against all of the candidates -- except for Jackson and Williams -- had been dropped. As the top vote-getter, Chattha receives an automatic seat on the University Council. Chattha was one of the students charged by the NEC, but he said he was not worried about getting off. "I knew the charges were ludicrous," he added. Sagat said he is honored to be elected as a representative. "My primary goal is to represent freshmen at the University in the best way I can," he said. UA Chairperson and College senior Lance Rogers said this is his favorite time of year on the UA. "We've got eight new energized freshmen on the body," he said.