UA elections draws few freshman candidates

Only 18 applicants, halfOnly 18 applicants, halfof last year's total, seek toOnly 18 applicants, halfof last year's total, seek tofill nine vacant UA seats Eighteen freshmen will vie for nine open seats on the Undergraduate Assembly during next week's election, according to College senior Michele Harris, Nominations and Elections Committee vice chairperson for elections. Last fall, UA elections included nearly twice as many candidates, since 35 freshmen ran for eight seats. Harris said she was surprised more freshmen did not turn in petitions, especially since at least 80 picked up candidate packets. "I don't know what happened," she said. "There seemed to be lots of interest and we did publicity like we always do." NEC Chairperson and Engineering junior Benjamin Goldberger said he also could not explain why so few freshmen chose to run for the UA this year. "The student government orientation meeting was so packed [that] we were getting extra chairs," he said. "We were at CUPID, ran ads and posted flyers, but there just wasn't as much interest." UA Vice Chairperson and College junior Larry Kamin emphasized that the small number of candidates can not be attributed to lack of advertisement. He noted that last year, the student government orientation meeting was left out of the New Student Orientation schedule, but elections still included a high number of candidates. "It's ironic that this year the publicity is unprecedented and the number of people on the ballot is lower than any time I can remember," Kamin said. He speculated that perhaps freshmen have not heard as much about the UA this year. "In the past, there has been lots of high drama and clashing of egos on the UA which led to publicity, albeit bad publicity, in the DP," Kamin said. "This, for better or worse, made the UA seem high profile and attracted more candidates." The 18 candidates submitted petitions Monday. In order to run for the UA, they were required to obtain the signatures of 166 full-time, first-year students. Campaigning officially begins at 6 a.m. today. The candidates met last night to discuss the NEC Fair Practices Code. This regulates campaign spending and press interaction, among other issues. Elections will be held next Tuesday and Wednesday, followed by a Fair Practices Code Hearing on Thursday. At that time, candidates may be disqualified from the race for violations of the Fair Practices Code. Election results will be announced at the conclusion of the meeting, which is open to the public. Freshmen candidates from the College of Arts and Sciences include Maria Arbona, Meghan Butler, Matthew Chait, Emily Cohen, Alisa Cole, William Conway, Josh Fink, David Goldberger, Seth Kruglak, Jeffrey Lynn, Jason Mayer, Jessica Oliff, Emily Robin and Lori Taliaferro. Other candidates include Wharton freshmen Dan Kryzanowski and Eugene Kim and School of Engineering and Applied Science freshmen Sopong Kim and Ben Wallfisch.