Race for the UA Chair: UA to elect new chairman

The 25 members of the Undergraduate Assembly will pick their new executive board at a meeting tonight. The newly elected Undergraduate Assembly will elect its 2000-2001 executive members at its annual transition meeting tonight, which will be held at 8 p.m in the basement of the Stouffer Triangle. While the 25 members will vote to fill five executive positions -- chair, vice chair, treasurer, secretary and University Council representative -- the hottest race is expected to be for chair. Four candidates are currently in the running. Two of the candidates -- current UA Treasurer Michael Bassik, a College junior, and former Treasurer Jon Glick, a Wharton junior who this year chaired the UA's Facilities Committee -- have held executive positions before. Bassik ran for chair last year after serving as the student government body's vice chairman. He lost to the current chair, Michael Silver. Communications Committee Chairwoman Dana Hork, a College sophomore, and Student Life Committee Vice Chairman Michael Krouse, a Wharton and Engineering sophomore, are also running for the UA's top position. The current members of the UA will elect the new chair and the rest of the executive board during the traditionally lengthy transition meeting, which stretched to six hours last year. Although there are more candidates this year than usual, the race seems to have narrowed down to two candidates -- Bassik and Krouse. Bassik has had the most executive board experience of anyone running and was the UA's top vote-getter this year. Krouse has worked on race relations dialogues between the UA and the United Minorities Council, and this year he wrote the UA's financial aid proposal. Many UA members said this year's election should be a close one. "I'm voting for [Bassik] because he's been on the UA for a long time," one UA member said. "[He's got] a lot of experience and and he's very qualified." But another member said, "I will vote for Krouse because I think he's got a good vision of where to take the UA in the future." Bassik is a Zeta Beta Tau brother and Hork is a member of Sigma Delta Tau. Neither Krouse or Glick are Greek. The past three UA chairmen have been Phi Kappa Psi brothers. Four UA incumbents are planning to run for the position of vice chair. Wharton sophomore Dana Becker, Engineering junior Mo Saraiya, College junior Alex Moskowitz and Wharton freshman Ethan Kay have all confirmed their intention to run for vice chair. UA newcomer and Engineering sophomore Eric Chen is running for secretary. Another new member, Nursing and Wharton junior Kisimbi Thomas, is running for treasurer. And College freshman Lara Bonner has indicated an intent to run for University Council steering representative. The number of candidates who run for these positions, however, will undoubtedly vary. Candidates that are not elected chair will be allowed to "drop down" and run for vice chair. This rule applies to all candidates, allowing them to run for more than one position. With four people already having declared their intentions to run for vice chair, the race is expected to be particularly competitive. The transition meeting comes after a particularly successful UA election year, with approximately 30 percent of students voting. The Nominations and Elections Committee attributed the increases to the new online voting system.

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