Danielle Moore '95 will become the first Native American Student Assembly president of the College next year. With Rukmini Sichitiu '95 as vice-president, the two will become the first women team to lead the Assembly.
"I think we make a very good team," Moore said. "I think we have worked well together in the past and I think we will work well together in the future."
Moore, a government major from Aurora, Colo., whose reservation is in Belcourt, N.D., received 39.2 percent of the students' votes, defeating her closest competitor Jim Brennan '96 by about 16 percent, a 259-vote difference.
Kenji Sugahara '95 ran a close third, winning 21 percent of the vote, 27 votes behind Brennan. Jeremy Katz '95 received 8 percent of the vote, while Caleb Scott '97 received 6 percent.
About 1,601 students voted in the elections yesterday compared to the 1,785 students last year.
Twenty-four students were elected to the general Assembly this year after a constitutional change last term increased the number from 21.
The Union for Reasonable Student Government, a group of predominately conservative students who ran on a platform of cooperation, garnered 13 of the available seats.
Moore said she will bring to the Assembly the ideas she presented in her platform. She said she will move the Assembly away from Greek politics and strengthen the ties between the administration and the Assembly.
Looking at the election results Moore said, "I think students definitely endorsed that vision."
But Moore also said it is important that students' needs are made a priority.
"One of the main goals of an Assembly president is to reach out to the community and ask where students' priorities are," she said.
Sichitiu, a Rumanian-American from Ojai, Calif., said she also will work to implement her campaign promises.
"I'm thrilled," Sichitiu said. "I never thought it would happen."
Sichitiu, and English major, said she ran a campaign based completely on her own ideas.
"It's important to note that [Moore and I] both identified ourselves as women in this campaign and I think that was heard," Sichitiu said. "That gives me so much faith in the Dartmouth community."
Other candidates had mixed reactions to the election results.
"I'm very pleased with my showing since I started out with very little name recognition being a '96," Brennan said. "I'm delighted. I wish the Student Assembly the best of luck next year."
Sugahara said, "Frankly it quite surprised me. I wish more people had turned out to vote. I'm kinda bummed out."
Some elected members of The Union were surprised by last night's results.
"I was happy that we got 13 people on but there were definitely some surprises," Scott Rowekamp '97 co-founder of The Union said. "This year there was definitely a big anti-slate faction. I think that definitely hurt us."
Among those not elected from The Union was the other co-founder Andrew Bender '96.
Artzer said she believes the elected general Assembly will be more representative than the current Assembly.
"It appears to me that despite a lot of different campaigns, people selected candidates on an individual basis," Artzer said. "I can tell by the students elected that people made informed decisions."
