With a record voter turnout of 5,425 students, the Student Assembly announced its newly elected officials online Wednesday night.

Prompted by heavy flow of Cornell pride streaming out of AMST 2001: First American University, Ezra and A.D.  once again ascended to East Hill this week.  Luckily, this Sun reporter had his seance kit on hand, and was able to snag a brief interview on the upcoming S.A. elections, Nelly, Buffalo Street Books and much, much more.

Natalie Raps '12 and Adam Nicoletti '12, candidates for Student Assembly President, discuss their differing approaches to the promotion of mental health.

The Office of Assemblies announced the winners of the Fall 2010 S.A. elections.

With 44 percent of eligible students voting in this year's Student Assembly elections, the S.A. is looking for ways to reach out to an apathetic student body.

Any familiarity with Cornell’s aspiring student leaders quickly yields the impression that some of them are, in fact, crazy a-holes. Not all of them, mind you; just enough to lend the Student Assembly the air of an irrationally batty farce. It’s hard to think of another campus group with as much responsibility, yet as little clout in the court of public opinion.

Yesterday’s Student Assembly and University Assembly debate forum, which focused primarily on the races for S.A. president and executive vice president, presented an animated discussion despite the absence of many of the candidates. At-Large Rep. Andrew Brokman ’11 and VP of Public Relations Vincent Andrews ’11 are vying for the presidential spot, while Ray Mensah ’11 and Chauncey Jenkins ’11 compete for vice president.

Members of the Student Assembly held internal elections yesterday to elect three vice presidents as well as members of the appropriations committee and the SAFC liaison.

Nikhil Kumar ’11 was elected vice president for internal operations, Chris Basil ’10 was elected vice president for finance, Vincent Andrews ’11 was elected vice president for public relations and Justin Min ’11 was elected the SAFC liaison.

The members elected to the appropriations committee were Adam Nicoletti ’12 (CALS), Adam Raveret ’12 (Arts and Sciences), Zach Glasser ’12 (Engineering), Mike DeLucia ’12 (Engineering) and Kristan Welch ’10 (Human Ecology).

The Student Assembly announced on Friday that its leaders for the coming year will be President Rammy Salem ’10 and Executive Vice President Olamide Williams ’10. In its first direct election of executive officers, the S.A. saw a record number of voters, amounting to over 4,300. Seven slates campaigned for the President/EVP position in one of the most competitive elections in recent history.

“In this race, people actually turned out to vote,” Williams said. “We want to have that same desire from students carry over into next semester. The Student Assembly is supposed to be the governing body between students and administration.”

A few days ago, while I was giving the new Keeton House ping pong table a workout, I observed a small band of students conspiring at the bottom of the stairs. I watched as they made their move on the dining room, banging pots and pans and yelling for attention. I quickly fell in behind these young idealists to find out how their political theater would challenge the establishment at its moment of national and global vulnerability.