Tufts University, say hello to Mitch Robinson, your new TCU president.
Robinson, a junior, captured an impressive margin of victory with 1028 (51.8 percent) votes. Contender Harish Perkari followed with 646 votes (32.6 percent) and Denise Lyn-Shue followed with 310 votes (15.6 percent), according to results released by the Tufts Elections Board (ELBO) shortly after midnight.
"I was just proud and excited for the opportunity, and I'm also honored," Robinson said. "It means a lot to me for enough people to have faith in me to take the job."
Robinson said he was relieved going into the election yesterday morning, and despite lingering anxiousness, he knew he'd done all he could do on his campaign.
"I'd worked really hard to let people know who I was and what I wanted to do," he said.
Robinson also expressed gratefulness to his other candidates. "Both of the people that I ran against are amazing, amazing leaders on this campus and have so much to offer," he said. "They should be recognized also. Together [on the senate] we're going to do a lot of great things."
Out of the students eligible to vote, 1984 students voted for a turnout rate of 45 percent, an all-time high for voter participation.
"It's more than we ever had before," ELBO Public Relations officer Adam Weldai said. "We're very happy with the turnout for the election, and we hope it increases with future elections."
The referendum to gauge student support for wind power also passed, with 1484 (74.8 percent) voting yes, 224 (11.2 percent) voting no, and 311 (15.6 percent) abstaining.
A second referendum to vote in changes to the TCU Senate constitution also passed, but with a majority opting out of the question.
The measure garnered 704 votes (35.4 percent) in support, 69 votes (3.4 percent) in opposition, and 1125 (56.7 percent) abstentions.
Another surprise was the high number of votes placed early in the day - approximately 33 percent had cast their ballots by 1 p.m.
The elections passed utterly free of technical mishaps. "There were no technical problems at all, in great credit" to the Student Services Web Center, which fielded the online election.
Weldai attributed the high turnout both to dynamic candidates and increased efforts at publicity.
"The three of them were very dynamic on their own, and they were able to bring a lot of noise about their election," he said.
The candidates were also allotted a greater campaign budget of $500 - "five times more than usual," Weldai said.
ELBO also stepped up its efforts at publicity. "We've had a lot more advertising than we ever had in the past," Weldai said. "We've had a lot of stuff going on."
"Exciting!" was ECO member Amanda Fencl's reaction to the student support for wind power.
We hope that administration's response will reflect its student body's wishes. This success is a testament to the growing environmental momentum on campus."
Senate historian E.J. Kalafarski acknowledged that the constitutional referendum would likely not capture the same excitement as the presidential election.
"We realized going in that it would be a bureaucratic referendum that it'd be tough to get people fired up about," he said. "But they were changes that members of every branch of the TCU Senate agreed should happen."
Nevertheless, the referendum did pass. "I think its a good example that when this kind of stuff needs to happen, the student body isn't as apathetic as a lot of people think they are," he said.
- Kat Schmidt
