At midnight on Friday, the final votes were cast for the Wesleyan Student Assembly (WSA) elections and the proposed changes to the constitution. Results were posted nearly instantaneously online and the nine frosh winners and seven at-large delegates became WSA delegates.
An unprecedented number of students, 21, ran for nine frosh representative positions. Voters were allowed to vote for nine of the candidates. The new officers are as follows: Erik Gonzalez, Jacob Mirsky, Adit Shah, Tara Moore, Armando M. Pacha Ficho, Matt Ball, Si Hyung Woo (Dave), Lashawn Springer and Josh Ente.
Thirteen non-frosh candidates ran for seven “at-large” representative positions, and they were voted into office in the same manner as the freshman representatives. Winners include Karen Courtheoux ’05, Janine Criscuolo ’07, Anda Greeney ’07, Brian Brotman ’07, Shayna Jeffers ’06, Michael Donnella ’07 and Terrence Trouillot ’07.
The updated WSA constitution, of which the most salient proposed change was to add gender neutral pronouns to the constitution, passed 332 in favor, 43 opposed.
“I think it’s cool that we have gender neutral pronouns used in the WSA constitution, although I don’t think it should have been ”he, she or ze“ because ”ze“ can apply to everyone,” said Paige Kruza ’07. “Other than that technicality, I think it’s great to give people who don’t identify as ‘him’ or ‘her’ space in the WSA.”
“Now that the constitution is passed, we can really focus on important issues this fall,” said Ali Gomer, WSA Coordinator.
The newly elected WSA met for the first time Sunday night for four and a half hours to make internal appointments to their seven main committees: the Student Affairs Committee (SAC), the Educational Policy Committee (EPC), the Community Outreach Committee (COCo), the Student Budget Committee (SCB), the Independent Project Committee (IPC), the Finance and Facilities Committee (FIFAC) and the Coordinating Committee (CC). The Executive Committee (EC) is composed of the WSA President and the chairs of the other seven committees.
“It’s really a long and tedious process, because we want to make sure it’s fair and that we get the right people in the right jobs” said Danielle Krudy ’07, a representative.
On Sunday night, representatives competed for positions by stating their opinion of why they would be well-suited to sit on a given committee, according to WSA President Emily Polak, who led the meeting. The assembly could then ask questions of the candidates before they left the room for discussion and an internal vote
From the hours of deliberation that took place at the WSA meeting, which is conducted in formal parliamentary style, the chairs of the seven WSA committees were appointed and are as follows: Chair of SAC, Elaine Garven; Chair of EPC, Karen Courtheoux; Chair of COCo, Nora Connor; Chair of SBC, Pacho Carrero; Chair of IPC, Jeremy Abrams (WSA Vice President); Chair of Coordinating Committee, Ali Gomer.
“The first meeting was exciting, if not a marathon,” Ente said. “I can’t wait to get to work as a member of FiFac. Hopefully I’ll be able to represent my constituents with an iron fist of justice. I’m really looking forward to this year on WSA, I think we’re in for a rocker.”
“I think there’s a tremendous amount of energy on the assembly this year, with members coming to the collective group with various concerns and passions that will work really well together in ensuring a productive year,” Polak said.