This year’s winter elections for the Wesleyan Student Assembly (WSA) and the Student Budget Committee (SBC), a subcommittee of the WSA, featured several key changes to last year.

For the first time, frosh candidates ran for three available positions, while 11 students ran for five at-large positions. This was a significant increase of at-large candidates from last year, when seven students ran unopposed for eight available positions.

According to WSA Coordinator Izaak Orlansky ’08, the goal of the frosh winter elections was to provide first-year students uninterested in joining the WSA at the beginning of the year with a chance to run. However, all three frosh candidates—Jen Liebschutz, Fludiona Naka and Elise Rosenthal—ran unopposed. Orlansky attributed the lack of competition to the fact that, in the fall, many frosh were appointed to terms that have not yet expired, and therefore they did not need to run in this election.

The SBC elections experienced a similar increase of candidates at the at-large elections, with ten students running for five seats. During the Winter 2006 SBC election as the at-large elections, five candidates ran for four seats. This semester, three of these candidates, including Gianna Palmer ’10, current SBC Chair, ran for re-election.

“When you’re running, it’s easy to be nervous about having more competitive elections, but it speaks well for the SBC and the WSA,” Palmer said. “Ultimately, I won’t know what I think until after the results.”

However, as of 8 p.m. on Thursday, the disparity between the amount of competition in the frosh and at-large elections had made little difference in voter turnout. Twenty-three percent of freshmen and 29 percent of upperclassmen had voted, a difference of six percent.

Although competition had less of a difference than expected, with 24 hours remaining for students to vote, participation has already exceeded participation from last year. Last year, 418 upperclassmen voted, five percent fewer than the 571 who had voted as of Thursday night. SBC voting saw a small increase from last year, with 709 students having voted by Thursday, 49 more than in 2006. The record for SBC voting, 34 percent, was set in 2004, when 938 students voted.

Despite these increases, Orlansky still sees voter turnout as an issue.

“Our biggest challenge is getting people to see a reason to vote, especially for people who don’t feel like they have a voice on the WSA,” he said.

In trying to reach out to voters, candidates submitted statements along with their petitions, detailing why they should be elected. However, some candidates have stated that this 100-some words isn’t substantial enough of a forum. WSA candidate Michelle Garcia ’10 said that it would be helpful if there were a forum where candidates could learn about students’ concerns, and thereby present a better platform. Former WSA member R. Chris Goy ’09 was more condemning.

“I think the exercise of the 150-word statement, while egalitarian in intention, is anything but an indication of how somebody will perform,” Goy said. “[It] usually manifests itself as nothing more than a desperate plea to seem experienced or an attempt at an easy laugh.”

Goy’s platform read, “Still no B.S.-Vote Chris Goy.”

Voting closes at 11:59 p.m. tonight, Dec. 7.