Second-round Student Union election winners sworn in
Candidates who won the second round of the Student Union elections for Rosenthal Quad, North Quad and the Class of 2013 senator seats were announced in an e-mail sent to successful candidates by Union Secretary Diana Aronin '11 Sept. 24. Ruben Abergel and Jonah Cohen won the final round of voting for the position of senator for the Class of 2013. Yakov Israel '12, Andrea Ortega '13 and Linda Li '13 will represent Rosenthal Quad, North Quad and Massell Quad, respectively. The second round of voting was held to settle elections in which no candidate in the first round received a majority of votes or in which technical difficulties prevented the first round from taking place. The first round of the elections was postponed due to technical difficulties with the polling system, according to Aronin in a Sept. 18 e-mail to the Justice.
No candidates signed up to run for the open positions representing the Foster Mods, Charles River Quad or East Quad. Students were unable to write in votes for these elections during the first round because of such technical issues. "[No one] had signed up to run for these quads and no one came forth from these quads with any complaints. . The way that we chose to run the elections for them is in no way unconstitutional," wrote Arorin in an e-mail to the Justice.
Senators for those quads, though, were not elected because more students abstained than voted for any one candidate. "Candidates that received more than 10 percent of the vote with a write-in (in the polls that had no candidates running) were contacted to see if they were interested in progressing to a final round," Aronin wrote in her e-mail.
Amy Mandel will run unopposed for the position of Foster Mods senator today.
"For East and Charles River, those seats will remain vacant until January. That is when the constitution states we can hold special elections for empty seats," Arorin wrote.
The Student Union Constitution states in Article IX, Section 4, Clause 2, "Fall Inaugurations shall take place at the first regularly scheduled Senate meeting following the official certification of election results." The candidates from the first round, however, were sworn in before the second round of voting was completed.
In response to a question about the inauguration's constitutionality, Aronin wrote, "It does not state explicitly in the constitution that all candidates need to be sworn in at one meeting." She added that it is not her decision to choose when to swear in new senators.
"I think that what we just did [swearing in the new senators] was constitutional," Union President Andy Hogan '11 said.
Winners of the second-round elections were sworn in at a Senate meeting Sept. 27.
Senators elected in the first round of elections on Monday, Sept. 21 were sworn in at the Student Union meeting Sept. 23. Beneva Davis '13 was sworn in as senator-at-large, Jackie Saffir as senator for the Class of 2010 and Brendan Fradkin as senator for the Class of 2012. Ryan Fanning '11, Leigh Nusbaum '11, Mark Trilling '12 and Beau Bonness '11 were sworn in as the senators for Ziv Quad, Village Quad, the Castle and Ridgewood Quad, respectively.
Hogan urged the new senators to "shake things up this year," saying at the meeting, "If you ran on something, make it happen."
Fradkin and Trilling discussed issues in sophomore housing, which included pest problems and a need for more trash cans within the various residence halls at the meeting.
Saffir, meanwhile, expressed her desire to lessen the "stigma and lack of knowledge about the counseling center at Brandeis."
"Mental health problems are a big deal. . People shouldn't be turning [treatment] options away," she said at the meeting.
Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Justice.