With many only winning by relatively slim margins over their opponents, candidates from the Student Voice! slate swept the A.S. executive offices and made a strong showing in college council races during last week’s campuswide election.
A.S. President-elect Marco Murillo (center) reacted joyously with fellow Student Voice! slate supporters after Elections Manager Erik Rodriguez-Palacios announced Murillo’s win on April 13.
In the presidential race, SV! candidate and current Associate Vice President of Diversity Affairs Marco Murillo narrowly emerged as the victor, capturing 34.4 percent of the electorate and beating SHOCK! slate candidate and current Earl Warren College Junior Senator Dan Palay by 212 votes.
Independent candidates Warren junior Michael Hirshman and Revelle College senior Junaid Fatehi finished third and fourth receiving 1,163 and 388 votes, respectively.
Murillo said that although campaigning was exhausting, he was especially happy that no candidates filed grievances during the election.
SHOCK! slate presidential candidate Dan Palay reacts after hearing that he lost the election. Palay came in second place, losing to Student Voice! slate candidate Marco Murillo by 212 votes.
“”The first thing I’m going to do is sleep and party, party and sleep,”” he said. “”There were lots of long hours, but it was really worth it.””
Murillo also said he was going to begin immediately working with his new cabinet - a collection of executive positions that his slatemates swept during the elections – to bolster the council’s relationship with student organizations, a cornerstone of the SV! platform meant to foster a better campus climate.
This year, the A.S. Council overhauled its constitution, cutting the number of executive positions from 11 to four: a president and three vice presidents. The new constitution also granted the vice presidents the power to appoint several associate vice presidents under them.
In addition, the makeup of the A.S. Senate, which previously held control over all council voting matters, was significantly altered by the new constitution.
Instead of having four senators per college representing each class, colleges now send two senators, who can be from any grade level, to the council. Academic divisions – biological sciences, physical sciences, arts and humanities, social sciences and engineering – are now each represented by a senator, and eight senators are elected as campus at-large representatives.
The new new council rules now grant executive officers, in addition to senators, voting power. Current President Harry Khanna, who helped author the new constitution, said that the changes were undertaken to streamline council operation and to make sure that all students are more accurately represented by the council.
For the office of vice president of finance and resources, which was the closest executive race, SV! candidate and current Revelle Sophomore Senator Sarah Chang won over SHOCK! candidate and current Eleanor Roosevelt College Sophomore Senator Alan Roof by just 53 votes.
By virtue of her office, Chang is ultimately responsible for overseeing all A.S. enterprises. She said that her first action would be to analyze financial problems at the Grove Caffe, which is $23,000 in debt and in danger of being permanently shut down. Last week, Craft Center Director and partial Grove owner Ron Carlson terminated the Grove’s contract, which could mean closure for the struggling business.
Roosevelt sophomore and SV! candidate Dorothy Young, running unopposed for the office of vice president external, said she plans to start a campus Lobby Corps and initiate dialogue with other San Diego area colleges to form a lobbying coalition that she said will better demonstrate students’ political clout.
For the office of vice president of student life, SV! candidate and Roosevelt sophomore Donna Bean beat independent candidate and current Associate Vice President of Academic Affairs Rabia Paracha by 489 votes.
Both candidates agreed that the position would be a quintessential link to the new vice chancellor of student affairs, and in turn, campus alcohol policies. Joseph W. Watson, who is retiring in June after decades as head of student affairs, has remained steadfast in his enforcement of strict alcohol regulations. Currently, advertisement of alcohol at campus events is prohibited.
SV! candidates captured 35 positions and SHOCK! candidates won 12 positions campuswide, with SHOCK! making its only sweeping wins in the Warren College Student Council.
The Promoting Understanding and Learning through Service and Education fee referendum, which required at least 20 percent of students to vote in order to go into effect, passed 2,643 to 1,725 with just over 22 percent of the student body voting.
P.U.L.S.E., which will be administered starting this fall, will increase the current campus activity fee by an additional $7 per quarter to fund campus outreach and retention services offered by the Academic Success Program and the Student Initiated Outreach and Recruitment Commission.
In addition, the referendum will provide funding for the Student Promoted Access Center for Education and Service, which will open next year as an umbrella office for SIORC and A.S.P. and also serve as a forum for student organizations to collaborate on community service projects.
