The Trustee Nominating Committee released the results of the 2005 student trustee election yesterday, declaring Doug Mitarotonda grad the new student trustee. He will be serving with Josh Katcher ’06. A student trustee is elected every year and serves a two-year term. “I can’t express how excited I am to represent the Cornell community to the Board of Trustees,” Mitarotonda told The Sun yesterday. Mitarotonda, who is also a Sun columnist, ran in a three-way race against Rayon Taylor ’07 and Justin Davis ’07, a member of the “Students First” ticket. According to the results published by the committee, Davis was disqualified for alleged illegal campaigning in dining and residence halls. Davis denied the charges, saying, “I have facts and evidence to prove that that isn’t true.” “Clearly [Mitarotonda] won the race,” he said. “But the Office of Assemblies really screwed me from the beginning.” Katcher said that he was happy to be working with Mitarotonda in the next year. “I called him up and congratulated him [when he won],” Katcher said. “He brings with him a wealth of experience that, in recent history, trustees have not brought, in that he was both an undergraduate and a graduate student here.” For his part, Mitarotonda said he will try to push for safety improvements for University students. “We need to make sure students are safe on and off campus,” he said, adding that the “Collegetown Creeper” and the David Church case have raised concerns that the University needs to take an active part in ensuring the safety of all of its students, no matter where they live. He also said that he will push for issues important to undergraduates as well as graduate students. “It’s exciting to represent graduate and professional students on the Board of Trustees,” he said. “I do still have close ties with undergraduate groups and the undergraduate community.” Brian Holmes grad, president of the Graduate and Professional Student Assembly, said that he was happy Miterotonda won. “Doug is the first graduate student ever elected student trustee as a grad,” he said, adding, “He really appealed to all students.” The Trustee Nominating Committee statement said that Davis’s disqualification did not affect the end results of the race.
Archived article by Michael Morisy Sun News Editor