The Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate and Committee on Student Life (CSL) re-appointed Adam Mueller to the Elections Board (ELBO) on Monday, after Mueller resigned following the failed freshman and Judiciary election in late September.
Sophomores Joe Coletti and James Blockwood were also elected to ELBO seats. The student government bodies appointed the three students who applied for the four open ELBO seats for terms that will last until December.
Late last month, the Senate and Judiciary accused Shane Mason, ELBO's former chair, and Mueller of botching the freshman election. Mason accepted all blame for the cancellation, citing poor communication and a lack of training. At the time, Senate Treasurer Ben Lee said there were problems with the ELBO structure. "All other branches [of student government] have training. ELBO never had that opportunity," Lee told the Daily. "They were expected to work a miracle."
Training for the new ELBO members will begin today, before the candidates' meeting for three open Senate seats at 9 p.m. The Senate race will be the only election the new ELBO members will supervise.
Jodie Nealley, faculty advisor to Tufts' student government, will train ELBO in TCU constitution and bylaws. She said she will encourage ELBO to draft goals and improve internal communication, intending to provide a more hands-on approach to prevent delays in the upcoming election.
Elections for the freshman Senate and TCUJ seats were postponed for a week after Mason failed to contact an outside company that was hired to hold the elections online. The race was ultimately held using traditional paper ballots.
Though optimistic about the training, Nealley said that it will ultimately be "up to ELBO to communicate with each other and follow the TCU constitution and their own bylaws."
To maintain its partiality, ELBO is not governed by any branch of student government. To provide oversight, Nealley said she will be "more proactive in [her] role as advisor to the TCU and the other branches of student government."
Judiciary Vice-Chair Alison Clarke said she feared that students have lost faith in ELBO, but believes that training could restore it.
Coletti, one of the new ELBO members, said that training will help the board understand their roles. "We can only go up from here," he said.
Valentine Caruso, the only ELBO member to survive the flawed first election, has conducted two elections this year. With help from senior Jesse Levey, Caruso conducted the late freshman and judiciary paper election, and then supervised the Senate's selection of Levey, Tommy Calvert, and Sean McDermott as trustee representatives.
Student government representatives interviewed each candidate about their goals for ELBO and chose to appoint all three applicants.
Coletti said he ran for ELBO in part because of the board's state of disarray. "I saw it as an opportunity to come in and help with the problems it's been having," he said.
