Chike Aguh wins TCU presidency

Sophomore Chike Aguh was declared the winner of the Tufts Community Union (TCU) presidential election on Friday, ending a campaign period marred with controversy and confusion.

Aguh defeated sophomore Joe Mead by a vote of 1003 to 656. The constitutional referendum on the ballot succeeded, with 876 students voting in favor, 103 against, and 363 abstaining.

Turnout was significantly lower than last year, due in part to confusion over the election date and technical problems with the online voting system on Thursday. An estimated 33 percent of eligible voters cast ballots on Thursday and Friday, compared to 52 percent in last year's presidential election.

Votes on the new constitution barely surpassed the 25 percent turnout threshold -- a referendum must be voted on by 20 percent of the students to be considered, and if less than 25 percent vote, it must pass by a two-thirds majority, which likely would have happened in this case.

Last night the senate chose executive board positions in in-house elections. Joe Mead was elected to the Vice-President position. Josh Belkin was elected Treasurer and Jeff Katzen will fill the the Historian position. Both elections were uncontested. Dave Baumwoll won a contested election for Parliamentarian.

Half of the exec board and most chairs and ALBO board chairs will be rising sophomores. Vice-President elect Joe Mead said that it wouldn't be a problem, "We've had the best freshman class ever."

He was hopeful for the next year, "I think the next year will be smoother," he said. "There are always bumps in the road, but this senate has great leadership."

Aguh attributes his victory to his connections to students in different areas of the Tufts community and the concreteness of his campaign platform.

"The students responded to me coming at them with proposals and actual plans and a vision, rather than rhetoric of flowery language," he said. "I'm very happy that the students put their faith in me to choose me as the leader of the TCU."

Mead said that Aguh's leadership of the Senate's Culture, Ethnicity, and Community affairs committee gave him connections to communities on campus who are usually active voters. Mead felt that he is better known in the Greek system and athletics, sectors that don't follow Tufts politics on a regular basis.

"He had a lot of support from the different culture communities, which I did not have," Mead said. "The changing voting days hurt me a lot because a lot of the people I was counting on to vote are the people who don't normally vote, who don't actively seek out when the election is."

Both candidates agreed that students were probably turned off from voting by the controversy over who the candidates were and when the election was. Mead said that many people told him on Friday that they hadn't voted because they couldn't get the website to work.

The short campaign period may also have affected turnout, as many students who did not vote said they were not aware of who the candidates were. Unlike last year, when the candidates and several of their supporters had viewpoints in the Daily outlining their platforms, the candidates only had time to publicize their names, and attendance at Wednesday night's debate was sparse.

"I don't think enough people know about any of the candidates to feel like they are able to make a reasonable decision," junior Charline Han said.

Junior Jonathan Portny was aware of who the candidates were but said he did not make efforts to learn about their platforms because he has no idea what student government or the TCU president does. He also was confused about the election date.

"I didn't even know the vote happened already, there're still flyers all around campus," he said. "I just delete e-mails from the Elections Board when I get them."

Others said they did not vote because they don't have faith in student government.

"It seems like whoever writes the most chalkings wins," sophomore Nayad Abrahamian said. "They don't have enough power to make effective change. They all talk about the same things."

Of the students who did vote, many based their decisions on personal knowledge of the candidates or on information passed on their extracurricular organization. Sophomore Caryn Harris, a member of the Leonard Carmichael Society, said she heard from others in her group that Aguh was sympathetic to the needs of the organization.

Another sophomore said he personally knew both candidates but found Aguh to be a better leader. "I knew he was more dedicated and hard-working. His activism is more important," he said.

Now that he has assumed the presidency, Aguh will stay at Tufts over the summer to start work on several of his campaign goals, including bettering public safety, talking to trustees about Phase III of the campus center, and laying out his TCUnited proposal to give student course credit for extracurricular activities.

He would also like to talk to administrators about the possibility of soundproofing the Gantcher Center so it can serve as a rain site for Spring Fling in the future.