Last spring student voters went to the polls and elected none other than Rammy “Rambo” Salem ’10 to the S.A. presidency. Those with a sense of history will recall that the film character Rambo, artfully played by Sylvester Stallone, rampaged through the Pacific Northwest, his brain short-circuited by the horrors of Vietnam and a manipulating colonel. Our own Rambo is no lunatic on the loose, but since assuming the top spot in student government, his behavior has been no less combative than his film doppelganger. This much, at least, is clear from the early meetings of the S.A..

For those of you who do not know what the Student Assembly is or does, here is what the S.A. is and does:

1. The S.A. is the overarching student governing organization on campus. There are two main things that the S.A. does:

2. Funds byline-funded organizations from the Student Activity Fee (currently set at $204 per student).

3. Drafts resolutions, makes referendums and holds forums regarding matters of student concern.

There: If you didn’t know before, now you know. But if you didn’t know about one of the organizations that most directly affects your life at Cornell, don’t feel bad because you are joined by about half the campus.

On Friday campaigning began for the highest position a student can hold on campus: the Student Trustee. This will be the person getting cozy with the Milsteins, the Tatas, and the Meinigs, just to name a few.

Cornell is one of the few institutions around the country that not only gives undergrads a seat on the Board of Trustees, but also allows them to vote. And to quote the guy who does the voice-overs for movie trailers, “Many will try, but only one can win.”

I’m letting you know in part so you can be prepared for an onslaught of quarter-carding, walking to class on colorful chalked-up roads and getting very familiar with Facebook ads for the next couple of weeks. More importantly, I’m letting you know so that you can actually vote.

There’s a lot Nepal has that America doesn’t: An overabundance of dal-bhat, load-shedding, hoards of small children who attack you asking for a chocolate, scary amounts of pollution that make the sun burn bright red in the sky in the middle of the afternoon, severed pig and goat heads sometimes still covered in fur and lying appetizingly out just waiting to be bought and fried up and, of course, Everest. But the most unexpected: Student assembly elections that people actually care about.

Resolution 30, calling for the creation of an optional transfer programming house, was sponsored by Andrew Brokman ’11, transfer representative, and Jared Feldman ’11, vice-chair of the Committee on Transfer Affairs. The two spoke about the struggles of the transfer community at Cornell since the closing of the Transfer Center. Brokman cited statistics, from a survey he conducted, that “88 percent of transfer students [had] a positive experience [at] the Transfer Center.”

The West Campus Residential Initiative, which began construction in 2003, has failed the transfer community, according to Feldman. “Transfer students were not included in the plans.”

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.”

Any person with a rudimentary understanding of hockey might find it logical to blame the goalie when the opposing team scores. And in Lynah Rink it’s always fun to remind the opposition’s goalie of their inadequacy between the pipes. But in politics, like team sports, it isn’t realistic or logical to blame just one person for the loss of, in this case, student governance, but instead the real weakness is larger and more complex.

The Student Assembly passed a resolution — by a vote of 17 to 1 — yesterday that seeks to ensure that current transfer students will not be subjected to the University’s new policy of publishing median grades on transcripts.

Andrew Brokman ’11, S.A. Transfer Representative, had proposed Resolution 26, which “requests that the registrar clarify the Median Grade Policy, so that it is in conformity with the Faculty Senate Resolution.” It states that students who will graduate any date earlier than June 2012 should not have the median grades on their transcripts.

The Student Assembly’s decision to allow the student body to directly elect its next president and executive vice president was intended to “make the elections process both more open and more democratic,” according to Resolution 12, passed by the S.A. last spring.