For the second consecutive year, Tracy Kelly and her party took the Graduate Student Senate election with little competition.
Kelly, who is currently the senate president, sat atop the Proud Party ticket and was re-elected with 123 votes. Other members of the Proud Party ticket who ran unopposed were Chelsie Wollett as the vice president for administration and finance and Molly Yanity as the new vice president for communications.
Dave Nichols was the only member of the ticket who ran in a contested race, for vice president for committees and legislative affairs, against Kendra Bradshaw. Nichols barely edged out Bradshaw 74 votes to 72 votes.
I am very glad that I was able to win this position
Nichols said. I worked very hard this year as a member of (Graduate) Student Senate to ensure equality on campus. Obviously I will continue that; it is something that I whole-heartedly believe in.
The contested race might be one of the reasons the total vote tally nearly doubled from last year, said Bill Knoblauch, chairman of the senate's Board of Elections.
We were very happy that it was a competitive race Kelly said. It really says something that students are really increasingly interested in Graduate Student Senate and interested in running for the positions and that we are capable of having races.
Total participation in the Graduate Student Senate election rose from last year. Yesterday 170 graduate students cast ballots
compared to 94 last year. There are 4
058 graduate students enrolled at Ohio University this quarter.
Another potential reason for the increase in voter participation could be increased campaigning
said Anna Seidel-Quast
a member of the Board of Elections.
The elections definitely got a lot more promotion this year, Seidel-Quast said.
Other candidates elected yesterday include Erin Dame as the senator for the College of Communication and Adrienne Isgrigg as the senator for the College of Arts and Sciences.
The Graduate Student Senate president is exempt from an assistantship
which is required of most graduate students.
The president position specifically is a graduate assistantship, Kelly said. The other positions are not graduate assistantships, so the only graduate assistantship for the Graduate (Student) Senate is the president's position.
Final election results will be available May 25.,",1,News,Olivia Arbogast,31864a.gif,",",",",","
31863,2010-05-21 02:10:00,Student Senate Elections: Lame-duck president texts his way into trouble during election day,Though current Student Senate President Robert Leary's makeshift T-shirt might have suggested he wasn't backing either party in yesterday's election
a text message he sent around noon could lead to a different conclusion.,Though current Student Senate President Robert Leary's makeshift T-shirt might have suggested he wasn't backing either party in yesterday's election
a text message he sent around noon could lead to a different conclusion.
Leary sent a text message saying
Don't forget to vote for PEAR in the Student Senate elections today!... yesterday
