The Student Union elections that took place Sunday, Sept. 29 elected the Sustainability Fund representatives and the Senior Representative to the Undergraduate Curriculum Committee. as well as two senators for the Class of 2014 and senators from all residence quads except Ridgewood Quad.All positions were filled, with the one exception of the senator for Ridgewood. Student Union Secretary Herbie Rosen '12 said in an interview with the Justice that there will be no senator for Ridgewood because the candidate, Keith Barry '12 received fewer votes (4) than there were abstentions (11).

"It might say a candidate wins, but we have to make sure that they receive more votes than abstains," explained Rosen.

Student Union President Daniel Acheampong '11 said in an interview with the Justice that the Union was working on the issue in compliance with the Student Union Constitution and that he and Rosen were speaking with Chief Justice of the Student Judiciary Matt Kriegsman '11.

"By either tonight or tomorrow afternoon, we will have an idea of exactly what we're going to do," he said.

Mitchell Schwartz and Dillon Harvey were elected to serve as senators for the Class of 2014.

Schwartz wrote in an e-mail to the Justice that "[his] goals are to speak for the 2014 class, ALL of the 2014 class." He wants to make sure that the meal plans are explained thoroughly to all first-years, and he would also like to get quarter machines put into all of the laundry rooms in the first-year quads.

The senators for Massell and North Quads will be Rosby Kome-Mensah II '14 and Shekeyla Nicole Caldwell '14, respectively. The election for Massell Quad's senator received the highest percentage of voters, with just over 50 percent of eligible participants voting.

The Brandeis Sustainability Fund Board representatives will be Susan Paykin '11 and Nicholas Polanco '13. These positions are new this year as a result of the Brandeis Sustainability Fund that was created last semester.

Albert Feldman '13 and Miriam Halimi '13 won the position of senator for East Quad and the Castle, respectively.

In an interview with the Justice, Feldman said he has been sitting as a "lame duck" as senator for the Village for the past year, and as the official senator for East, he wants to "do things that make people enjoy their time here."

The Transitional Year Program senator will be Alyssa Green. The senator for Ziv Quad will be Mark Levi '12, while Elizabeth Fields '13 will fill the senatorial position for Rosenthal Quad. Tae Wan Kim '12 and Evyn Rabinowitz '12 both ran unopposed and will fill the spots for the Charles River Apartments and the off-campus senators, respectively.

There was one successful write-in candidate this year: Anthony Rios '11, will fill the position of senator for the Foster Mods. There was no official candidate running for that position, so eligible voters wrote in on the ballot whom they wanted to fill the position.

Jake Weiner '13 was running unopposed for the position of Senator for the Village, but he was defeated by Missy Skolnik '12, a write-in candidate.

In an interview with the Justice, Rosen explained there may be a problem with Skolnik assuming the position, because the Constitution states that a candidate may not run for office if he or she will not be able to serve for the entire term, and Skolnik will be going abroad in the spring. However, Rosen also said that since Skolnik ran a write-in campaign rather than an offical campaign, there is a question about whether or not she should be allowed to take office. Rosen said that the Student Judiciary will be discussing the matter; a decision is to be made this morning. As of press time, no decision has been made.

"We're simply looking to see if there's a clear-cut answer to this question," Kriegsman said in an interview with the Justice. "If there is no clear-cut issue, it will be up to [Student Union Secretary] Herbie Rosen's discretion to decide how this applies." In either case, however, Rosen will make the final decision on this matter, Kriegsman explained.

If the candidates disagree with the final decision, they can file a case with the Student Judiciary, "and that's where we can actually have an official opinion," Kriegsman said.

In an interview with the Justice, Skolnik said that while she created a Facebook group, she did not run a campaign. She also emphasized that while the issue with her role as Village Senator stems from the fact that she would not be on campus for the whole because of studying abroad, she had not made the decision to study abroad yet.

"I hope that the Executive Board considers the environment we're trying to promote at this school. They should be aware of what the student body wants," Skolnik said, adding that she believes there should be an amendment to mitigate this issue. The Village Senator last year, Leigh ?Nusbaum '11, only served for a semester.

The Senior Representative to the Undergraduate Curriculum Committee will be Jenna Rubin '11. The election for the UCC received the lowest number of eligible participants, with slightly less than 3 percent of voters taking part.

These elections were only the second time the instant run-off system, in which voters rank the candidates in order of their preferences, was used for voting. Rosen said that he "think[s] this system is the most ideal because it gives all candidates the most justice."

Rosen, who served as elections commissioner, said in a later interview with the Justice that he "was happy with how elections went. I was really excited we had so many candidates, especially from the first-year classes."





-Alana Abramson, Brian Fromm and Jillian Wagner contributed reporting.