Zach Kolodin ’07 was elected Wesleyan Student Assembly (WSA) President for 2006-2007, and write-in candidate Brittany Mitchell ’07 was elected Vice President in the WSA elections, which ran last week from Wednesday to Sunday.
Kolodin thoroughly defeated Adit Shah ’08 in a heated contest, 733 votes to 435 votes, and Mitchell defeated Katie Kalafus ’09, 450 votes to 385 votes.
“I was campaigning right up until midnight [Sunday night], partly to keep my mind off of things,” Kolodin said. “It was very stressful, but I felt that we had run a good campaign, and couldn’t have any regrets.”
WSA Representatives for the class of 2007, 2008, and 2009 were elected as well. Annie Fox, Anda Greeney, and Estrella Lopez will represent next year’s senior class; Sam Ruth, Napat Phichaphop, Mark Kelley, Halim Farouk Rizk, and Emily Rosen-King will represent the junior class; and Benedict Bernstein, Iwan Djanali, Jason Harris, Chris Goy, and Jorge Soto will represent the sophomores.
Many of the candidates and their respective supporters spent time campaigning in person, writing Wespeaks and sending out e-mails in order to garner support.
“This is the first election I’m aware of where both [presidential] candidates went door-to-door,” Kolodin said. “Both candidates really put more time into the campaign.”
The dedicated campaigning achieved desired results, as 1232 students voted in the presidential election, up from 1080 a year ago and 1031 two years ago.
“I think it’s wonderful that more people than usual voted,” Kolodin said. “However, I’d still like to see higher voter participation in the elections.”
In the vice presidential election, 992 votes were cast. Though Kalafus was the only candidate listed on the ballot, Mitchell defeated Kalafus even without including various misspellings of her name.
“Being a write-in candidate is a lot harder than being on the actual ballot,” Mitchell said. “ I felt like I personally had to talk to people to let them know that I was running. I worked a lot harder than other candidates.”
Mitchell speculated that the fact that Kalafus was the only candidate listed on the ballot may have caused some voters to think Kalafus was running unopposed and therefore fail to cast a vote. Mitchell was disqualified from officially being listed on the ballot because she turned in her petition to run for office past the deadline and Kalafus reported her.
“I wasn’t clear on what the rules were regarding this, so I went up to [WSA Vice President] Monica Arduini, my campaign manager [after hearing that Mitchell turned in her petition late],” Kalafus said. “[WSA President] Jesse Watson [’06] happened to be nearby and asked if I was ‘officially reporting’ the rules violation. I was flustered, and I didn’t really know what it meant to ‘report’ something, so I said yes, without knowing exactly what that entailed.”
Mitchell launched a campaign to inform as many students as possible of her decision to run and her platform. Kolodin also encouraged people to vote for Mitchell.
“If I could go back in time, I am not sure if I would’ve reported it knowing now what the consequences would be,” Kalafus said, referring to the idea that many students blamed her for Mitchell’s disqualification. “I know that Brittany and Zach worked incredibly hard, because everywhere I went they were already there, or had just been there, campaigning. Everywhere I put up a flyer, they would put four. If the amount of effort they put into this election is an indication of the work they will do next year, the WSA is in good hands.”
Kalafus plans to run as a class representative in the fall. Shah, who was reached for comment but did not respond by press time, said at the April 23 presidential debate that he would run for an at-large bid should he lose the presidential election.
“I was very pleased to learn that WSA will have such capable leaders as Zach and Brittany next year,” Watson said. “Both Zach and Brittany have shown strong commitment to representing the needs and concerns of Wesleyan students, and I believe they have the experience and the talent to take on what can be a tough job.”
Kolodin and Mitchell plan to distinguish themselves from WSA leaders of the past.
“I want to make the VP role a more serious role that actually gets things done,” Mitchell said. “In the past, it has been a slacker role.”
“It bothers me that people are compelled to say that the WSA doesn’t represent or is ineffective,” Kolodin said. “As president, I’d like to demystify what the WSA does. I want to be much more of a public president than has been the case in the past.”