The Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate elected a new executive board, Senate committee chairs and Allocations Board (ALBO) chairs during in-house elections conducted last night.
The newly elected members of the 2008-2009 TCU Senate selected sophomore Scott Silverman as vice president, junior Matt Shapanka as treasurer, senior Antonella Sarcano as historian and sophomore C.J. Mourning as parliamentarian. They will be joined on next year's executive board by sophomore Duncan Pickard, who was elected as TCU president by the student body on Wednesday.
Committee chairs were also chosen last night. Freshman Sam Wallis will serve as the Services Committee chair; freshman Chas Morrison as Administration and Policy Committee chair, freshmen Katy Simon and Dan Pasternack, a Daily news editor, will serve as Student Outreach Committee co-chairs; junior Shawna Russo and sophomore Brandon Rattiner as Education Committee co-chairs; junior Toby Bonthrone and freshman Ryan Heman as Culture, Ethnicity, and Community Affairs Committee co-chairs; and freshmen Lauren Levine and Molly Moulton as Special Projects Committee co-chairs.
ALBO, the TCU body that provides support to student groups with funding and makes funding recommendations to the Senate, is comprised of nine councils that each oversee a different category of student organizations. The Senate elected six ALBO council chairs last night; two positions are reserved for freshman and will be filled in elections in September, and the ninth chairmanship is reserved for the TCU president. Silverman, Levine, Heman, Wallis, junior Dan Hartman and Mourning were chosen last night to fill the six available seats. Shapanka will chair ALBO in his position as treasurer. A number of the ALBO positions were heavily contested, with the sixth council election commanding a field of eight candidates.
In an internal ALBO election following the selection of the new ALBO chairs, Levine was chosen as associate treasurer. She will serve on the Senate executive board in addition to her role within ALBO.
"I am so excited to work with all of the people who were elected tonight," Pickard told the Daily last night. "I think we have a really great executive board and really great committee chairs. It's really such an exciting time to really see the faces on Senate who are going to make such a great change next year."
The Elections Commission (ECOM) conducted the elections. The positions of treasurer, Services Committee chair, Administration and Policy Committee chair, and the first ALBO council chair were uncontested.
