In an election in which candidates' platforms were e-mailed to students late on election eve, not one of the 20 candidates garnered a significant majority on the Board of Trustee's steering committee on the landmark social and residential life yesterday's campus-wide election, leading to a run-off election with the top four candidates tonight and tomorrow.
Ben Berk '00, Case Dorkey '99, Andy Louis '00 and Margaret Smoot '01 emerged as the four leading candidates in yesterday's election and will compete for the committee in the run-off election.
Yesterday, 1,575 students cast their votes in a historic election that will give student voice to shaping the College's social and residential life future.
Four undergraduates will serve on the committee.
One of the students will be determined by the run-off election. The second candidate will be chosen by the Membership and Internal Affairs Committee. Both positions will be announced simultaneously following the run off.
The MIAC - consisting of the Assembly vice-president elect, four additional Assembly members and four representatives - will appoint a student selected from a pool of 34 total contenders.
Candidates that participated in the campus-wide election and the run off will be considered, plus an additional 15 students who did not appear on the election ballot.
The Steering Committee election was held in conjunction with a student vote for which soda will be the College beverage.
Linking the two votes together "was the most logical and practical thing to do," Assembly vice president-elect Margaret Keucker '01 said.
"We made sure to always put the Trustee part ahead of the Coke part in all the flyers and blitzes," Assembly president-elect Dean Krishna '01.
Damara Cockfield '02 said she was mostly interested in voting because of the Coke/Pepsi decision.
Although in some cases students interviewed by The Dartmouth commented that the Coke/Pepsi decision combated their voting apathy, many still felt uninformed about the candidates and their platforms.
An unofficial list of candidates was announced Thursday but a final list of students running for the position and their platforms were not publicized until the election commenced Sunday.
In response to student complaints about a lack of awareness of the election, Keucker admitted, "Yes, I think it was too rushed."
The election deadline prevented students from being adequately informed in their decisions. Many students interviewed said they went by name-recognition to make a choice.
"I didn't really hear that much about the candidates," she said. Although she did vote in for a student in the steering committee election she felt her decision was difficult because of a lack of information. "It was sort of random, just introduced in the Blitz," Cockfield said.
Voter Bradley Wall '02 said he didn't know what the Steering Committee is.
"I just sort of knew who I liked," he said of his decision to vote in the election.
The length of the packet sent out to students announcing the platforms also deterred many from voting.
Sophomore Justin Sarma admitted he did not vote, "but I probably would have voted if I had [read the packet]."
The run off which opens tonight at 8 p.m. and runs 24 hours through Wednesday at 8 p.m. will provide an opportunity for students to speak with the four candidates. The announced-winners will be in Tindle Lounge in Thayer Dining Hall from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. tonight.
