After operating shorthanded all semester, the Elections Board (ELBO) appointed a fifth student to complete its membership just before the Thanksgiving break.
ELBO is normally a five-member body, but has had only four members this semester. Its vice president, Denise Wiseman, "left Tufts temporarily for financial reasons" after last semester, said Allison Priess, public relations chair of ELBO. Pries may return next year.
Junior Kenneth Weinberger was appointed to fill the vacant seat. He will attend his first ELBO meeting tonight.
Weinberger is excited about the opportunity. "I am looking forward to helping plan my first election," Weinberger said.
"I have always been interested in student government, but never became formally involved," Weinberger said. "I found out about the opening and saw an opportunity to join a unique sector of student government."
"Our first meeting with Kenneth is tomorrow evening, and we'll be discussing plans for the special election next semester," Priess said. The special election will fill a seat in the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate left vacant due to the early resignation of junior Senator Shaun Glassman.
While members of the Senate, the Committee for Student Life (CSL), and the TCU Judiciary (TCUJ) are elected by the student body, members of ELBO are appointed by a joint committee of five people from the CSL, Senate and TCUJ.
"Normally the seat would have been filled at the beginning of the fall semester, but because the TCUJ seats were not filled until October 2004, the appointment was postponed," said TCUJ Vice-Chair Jake Resnicow. He said the TCUJ seats had not been filled at the start of the semester "due to a CSL appeal of the TCUJ election results in May of 2004."
According to Priess, being understaffed did not prevent ELBO from functioning normally. "The first election went off without a hitch," she said. "It was necessary to run the first election without electing a new
member."
"Since ELBO doesn't have a lot of activity between the first two to three weeks of the year and the beginning of next semester, it didn't really matter when in the semester we had a new appointment," Preiss said.
But ELBO member Abby Lillianfeld said the body's reduced staff increased the workload of its remaining members. "It was hard being down one person. It was a lot more work," she said.
Seven students had initially shown interest in the open ELBO seat, but Resnicow said only four of these students came to the Nov. 16 appointment session.
"I can't comment on the deliberation proceedings, but it was a very difficult decision," Resnicow said. "All of the students who came before our committee to appoint the ELBO member were extremely well-prepared and qualified. We encourage each of them to run again in the spring."
Though ELBO is now fully staffed, more changes are ahead. New ELBO members are normally appointed at the beginning of the spring semester, meaning that all current members, Weinberger excluded, must stand for reappointment if they wish to remain on the board.
At least one member, Taleen Babayan, will not seek reappointment since she will be abroad in the spring. The spring ELBO appointment meeting will be held Feb. 1st, Resnicow said.
"I'm not sure if all of the current ELBO members are planning on re-running again in the spring of 2005, but we certainly hope they pursue the opportunity," Resnicow said.
Priess and Lillianfeld said they encouraged all interested students to run for one of the four remaining spots to contact the TCUJ.
