There will be no election for Tufts Community Union (TCU) senators this year, as only 27 students submitted completed petitions to run for 28 seats, Election Board (ELBO) Chair Shane Mason announced last night.
Exactly seven nominees in each class - except for the class of 2003, which only had six - had their candidacy approved by ELBO. And because seven is the exact number of proscribed seats allotted to each class in the TCU Constitution, no vote on these candidates will be necessary. The election for the 21 Senate seats had been scheduled for April 11.
The only class that may have the opportunity to elect their senators will be the incoming freshman class, which will have eight seats available - its standard seven plus one more to fill the gap left by the class of 2003.
Barring any unforeseen election violations, the senators representing the rising senior class will be Eric Greenberg, Gautam Kitchlu, William McCarthy, Varsha Prasad, Erin Ross, Michele Shelton, and Brad Stitchberry. Each of them served on the Senate this past year.
The class of 2003 representatives will be Melissa Carson, Mauro Ferman, Dan Fowler, Kathryn Klencheski, Benjamin Lee, and Andrew Potts. Carson, Lee, and Potts have all served on the Senate before.
The senators for the rising sophomore class will be Nikhil Abraham, Josh Belkin, Jill Bier, Pritesh Gandhi, Suman Rao, Ed Schwehm, and Raja Taunk. Belkin is the only person from his class not to serve on the Senate this year, though he did run in the fall.
Freshman Tiffany Gee was the only senator returning to Tufts next year who choose not to run again. The possible candidacy of Mernaysa Rivera, who served on the Senate in the fall but is currently abroad, presents some controversy. According to fellow senators, Rivera intended to seek reelection and had designated proxies to handle her nomination process. But nobody submitted a petition for her by the deadline at ELBO's candidate meeting on Wednesday.
"She missed the deadline, and we have reason to believe that she was aware of the deadline," Mason said.
ELBO regulations allow for deadlines to be extended on an individual basis, and the body did vote on whether to extend it for her. But the motion did not receive the requisite unanimous vote it needed to pass.
The uncontested races also confirm that juniors Eric Greenberg and Michele Shelton will be senators and thus eligible to seek nomination for president. The Senate must choose two people to ensure there will be competition for that position and, to this point, Shelton and Greenberg are the only two senators who have announced their candidacy. The presidential election is scheduled for April 25, along with elections for the TCU Judiciary and the student members of the Committee on Student Life. Petitions to run for those positions are due on April 18.
The uncontested races and subsequent lack of any election for three-fourths of the Senate took many by surprise. Individual classes have gone uncontested in the past, but never for all three. Some feel the reasons for the non-election can be traced to the present Senate.
"It's only indicative of the perception of student government at Tufts, there's not really much else can you say about it," Mason said.
