The 12 representatives of the Senior Executive Committee, the body that governs the senior class after graduation, were announced by the dean of the Class of 2009 on Tuesday. The members of the committee will select eight additional SEC officials, who will be announced on March 2.
Six hundred and twenty-nine members of the senior class voted in Monday's election, selecting from a pool of 63 candidates.
The elected members of the committee, in order of total votes received, are Rembert Browne '09, Molly Bode '09, Ruslan Tovbulatov '09, Raymond Rodriguez '09, Alex Cook '09, Lizzy Hennessey '09, Peter Rothbard '09, Ry Sullivan '09, Taylor Holt '09, Andrew Son '09, Greg O'Sullivan '09 and Zach Swiss '09.
The SEC's primary responsibility is to maintain a strong relationship between the graduating class and the College, and among members of the class, according to the Office of Alumni Relations web site. The committee representatives are in charge of coordinating the five-year class reunion and "mini-reunions" prior to that date.
Some new committee members said they anticipate that the current economic situation may make their job more difficult than in it has been in past years.
"The entire climate is more sober -- I think being really active and making people stay active with the College will be a bit more of a challenge," Cook said.
The committee organizes Class Day, a celebration that occurs prior to commencement, and selects the members of the class who perform skits and give speeches during the event.
SEC members also select the class marshals, who lead the class procession during the commencement ceremony.
Several new SEC members interviewed by The Dartmouth said they decided to run for the committee because of personal desires to remain involved with their College class and to ensure that the class as a whole remains well connected.
"I ran for SEC because I thought it would be a great way to keep in touch with my Dartmouth group after graduation and to organize the class keeping in touch," Rothbard said.
The elected members will select the additional eight students for the committee from the remaining candidates from Monday's election.
All of the SEC members interviewed by The Dartmouth said they will strive to ensure that the selection of the additional eight members will help the committee better represent the diversity of the senior class.
"I think the most important thing right now will be to focus on getting more women on the committee," Rodriguez said.
The committee currently includes 10 men and two women.
"I think [the gender imbalance] is a little ridiculous," Anna Bofa '09, a candidate who was not elected to the committee, said. "I'm not surprised, given the nature of our campus. It's a male dominated campus."
Selecting female representatives would be in the best interest of the College community, she said.
The elected members said they also intend to select members who have strong connections to the College.
"I would be looking for people who have experience working on committees before, or who have been involved with College activities that involve communicating between departments and with alumni," Rothbard said.
Both the candidates who were elected and those who were not said they felt the election process was fair.
"I think that because the process was democratic that's a positive -- we have directly elected representatives," Cook said.
Several of the candidates actively campaigned for spots on the committee, purchasing advertisements on Facebook and promoting their candidacy in their BlitzMail auto-replies.
Adam Frank '09, a candidate who was not elected to the committee, said he did not actively campaign, but that he did not think it was unfair for others to employ these tactics.
"There isn't really a precedent because each class participates in this election only once," Frank said.
Browne is a member of The Dartmouth Staff. Swiss is a former member of The Dartmouth Senior Staff.
