Early exit polls from Virginia’s gubernatorial race showed that the percentage of voters who were under 30 shrank significantly from last year. The same seems to be true for the Tompkins County local elections, as most Cornellians did not turn out for what were largely uncontested elections.

After several weeks of chalking, handing out quarter cards and waving a flag outside Libe Café, Asa Craig ’11 has been elected as the newest undergraduate student trustee for Cornell, the Office of the Assemblies announced yesterday.

Out of the 3,423 ballots cast for the 10 candidates, Craig was ranked first on 651 of those ballots. Using the Hare-Clark system, the candidate with the least amount of votes is systematically eliminated. The eliminated candidates’ votes are then transferred to other candidates depending on the rankings of voters’ preferences. In the end, Craig defeated Raymond Mensah ’11 with a final count of 1,578 votes.

At its last meeting for this academic year, the Graduate and Professional Student Assembly held elections last night for the assembly’s 2009-2010 executive council.

Darrick Evenson grad was elected the president of GPSA. Erica Gutierrez grad was elected executive vice president, and Brian M. Forster grad was elected the vice president of operations.

“The main issue I want to focus on is that the GPSA needs to be more representative of the graduate student body,” Evenson said. “While all 96 — including three professional schools — have a seat available in the non-voting body of the GPSA, only 42 percent are actually filled.”

As for Gutierrez, making sure Cornell is environmentally sustainable is her most pressing concern.

This year’s undergraduate student trustee elections hold special significance for Cornell. It was 40 years ago that the Takeover of Willard Straight Hall helped elucidate the need for a transparent University. Many credit the Takeover, and a series of tumultuous events that followed, with Cornell allowing four students to serve as voting members on the Board of Trustees.

Four decades later and with two fewer student Trustees seats, 11 Cornellians are vying to continue the tradition of student governance.

After a long and arduous campaign process, the Class Councils named the presidents and vice-presidents of each class on Friday. Class Councils are charged with planning events for their entire grades in order to bring people together and foster unity. Past events have included Battle of the Late Night Foods, class talent shows and meet and greets with President David Skorton. The Class Councils for each graduating class are also in charge of planning Senior Week, Convocation and Commencement.

Class of 2010

President: Jeffrey Katz ‘10

Vice President of Finance: Kelly Dowling ‘10

Class of 2011

President: Alex Meier ‘11

Executive Vice President: Theresa Cederoth ‘11

Class of 2012

President: Annabel Fowler ‘12, Sun Contributor

As Cornellians celebrate this Black History Month, we must take a moment to reflect upon how far this country has come. The Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s secured many basic rights for blacks, and America notably elected its first bi-racial president last November. Historically, great strides have also been made at Cornell. Alpha Phi Alpha, the country's first black fraternity, was established at Cornell in 1906, and in 1969, the Willard Straight takeover led to changes such as the creation of the Africana Studies and Research Center.

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As Barack Obama transitions into his first presidential term, he will be backed by an overwhelming Democratic majority in Congress including the addition of at least five new Democratic seats in the Senate and at least 20 in the House. A few weeks after the election, Republican officials remain busy speculating about where they went wrong and which direction they need to move toward in the future.

Most Republican leaders blame the losses on their inability to build a cohesive platform that could resonate with a more diverse group of voters than just the party’s base. The elections exposed the strong divide between the different factions within the party, specifically between the fiscal and social conservatives.