The Student Assembly announced its election results for all positions but president and undesignated at-large representatives Thursday evening.
The results of the president and undesignated at-large races will be released “pending resolution” of challenges to the positions, according to an email from the Student Assembly.
Jon Weinberg ’13, S.A. director of elections, said that a public report will be released with the results of the challenges as soon as they are resolved.
“The reason for keeping confidentiality is to ensure that the elections committee can go through the process objectively and [in an] unbiased [manner],” Weinberg said.
Though Weinberg declined to speak about the nature of the challenges, he said they could possibly affect both of the currently undetermined races, noting that candidates who run for president can also be eligible for at-large.
Sarah Balik ’15 was elected executive vice president for the 2013-14 academic year. In the first round of votes, Balik received 1,312 of 4,141 total votes.
“I’m really grateful. The other candidates ran great campaigns and are all people with amazing ideas,” said Balik, who is currently serving as a the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences representative.
Balik said that her priorities as EVP will be improving campus sustainability, using the SA’s safety survey data to work with Cornell University Police Department and University administrators and increasing the transparency of the S.A.’s byline funding process. Noting that speaking with students might have contributed to her win, Balik said that as executive vice president, she will continue to work with students to learn what they want out of the S.A.
“People complain all the time about how the S.A. isn’t transparent enough,” Balik said. “We just have to engage the student body just as much as we do during elections; that’s something we can all work on throughout the year.”
Juliana Batista ’16 was elected women’s issues liasion at-large. She echoed Balik’s comments on expanding the transparency of the S.A. by working with students.
“I think [having a position on the S.A.] is continuously about showing your face and talking to people — not just being a higher organization of student government,” Batista said.
Batista said that she wants to hear more from students in order to make her agenda less of a personal platform, and instead more representative of what students want from the S.A.
She also aims to work to improve campus safety, particularly by expanding the Blue Light system.
Cameron Pritchett ’15 and Thaddeus Talbot ’15 were elected the two minority liasion at-large positions.
The remainder of the Student Assembly election results are located on the S.A. website.
Original Author: Dara Levy