UA picks Hork as chairwoman

The Undergraduate Assembly elected its 2001-2002 executive board last night, eventually selecting UA veteran Dana Hork as chairwoman at a lengthy five-and-a-half-hour transition meeting. Joining the College junior on the executive board will be Vice Chairman Jed Gross, Secretary James Ku, Treasurer Seth Schreiberg and University Council Representative Michael Krouse. The approximately two dozen UA members present elected the five executive board members in Houston Hall's Benjamin Franklin Room. "I knew going in it would be a tough race with the extremely qualified candidates, but I know we will all work together well in the year ahead," Hork said. She beat out two UA incumbents -- Krouse, the outgoing UA treasurer, and College sophomore Eric Chen Hork, a College junior, served as UA secretary this year. Last year, she also ran for UA chairperson, but lost to outgoing Chairman and College senior Michael Bassik. Prior to voting, candidates made opening statements, and then UA members questioned the candidates. Finally, non-UA undergraduates attending the meeting were allowed to ask questions of the candidates. But four candidates -- rather than the expected trio of Hork, Krouse and Chen -- emerged to run for the position of chairperson, with Wharton freshman Andrew Gomez unexpectedly throwing his hat into the ring at last night's meeting. Despite the large number of candidates, electing the chairperson only took one round of voting. Exactly 13 members voted for Hork, giving her a majority of the vote. Last year, four candidates also ran for chairperson, and it took three rounds of voting before UA members elected Bassik. According to Director of Student Life Fran Walker, the UA hasn't had a female as chairperson since 1990. Hork will serve as the fifth female UA chair since 1972, when the UA became co-ed. The election of Hork, a Sigma Delta Tau sister, continues the trend of electing a member of the Greek system to the position of UA chairperson. The last four chairmen were all fraternity members. All candidates are given the opportunity to "drop down" and run for another position on the UA executive board. However, none of the three candidates knocked out of the competition for chairperson chose to run for vice chair. College freshman and rising Sophomore Class President Jason Levy and College junior Jed Gross went head to head for the position of vice chairman, with Gross winning 18 votes out of the 22 cast. "I'm excited about this opportunity to work with Dana Hork and the rest of the executive board to strengthen the UA both internally and externally," he said. College sophomores Seth Schreiberg and Aaron Short ran for the position of UA treasurer, with Schreiberg coming out with the majority. "I'm looking forward to working with the other government branches to find alternate sources of funding for preceptorials and for continuing the work from this year to make performing arts space more affordable," Schreiberg said. "I would also like to finish the push to move Sports Club Council funding away from SAC." Upon being nominated at last night's meeting, Chen decided to drop down and run for secretary, leaving five candidates vying for the position -- the largest number of candidates to run for any position this year. Chen also ran for secretary last year, but lost to Hork. Besides Chen, the candidates included College freshman Kirsten Grubbs, Wharton junior James Ku, College junior Carrie Zaslow and UA newcomer Gautam Mashettiwar. Ku and Chen tugged over the position of secretary in the third and final round of voting, with Ku emerging as the new UA secretary. Krouse and Levy, who both unsuccessfully ran for other positions, dropped down to run for representative. Several other UA members were nominated, but declined to run. Krouse was victorious.