Sections

The Student Union special election Tuesday filled the remaining vacant spots on the Senate and other bodies, resulting in wins for Adam Hughes, the new Junior Representative to the board of trustees, Lisa Melmed as Ridgewood senator and Tyrone Calliste as Mods senator who won via a write-in bid.

“I am ecstatic with how elections went,” Union Secretary Herbie Rosen ’12 wrote in an e-mail to The Hoot. “We, the E-board, really wanted all students to have a representative in the Union, and [an] advantage given with all three seats filled is that every student, no matter where they live, now has exactly that: a representative on Senate.”

Melmed is unique in that she was named Ridgewood senator in this election after the position went unfilled in an election less than three weeks ago.

The decision by Rosen to hold a new election was made after consultation with the aforementioned goals of the E-board to have all positions filled regardless.

“I do not see much harm in having the second round of elections so soon after the first,” she said in agreeing with the special election. “Maybe it served as a wake-up call to encourage students who otherwise would not have voted. Several students were willing to serve and run in the election and that’s a great thing—it certainly would be unacceptable to have residential quadrangles that are not represented.”

Melmed also threw off the possibility of having decided against the Constitution, which says that seats won by “abstain,” or no candidate are to remain unfilled. Melmed indicated that what the Constitution means to student leaders is more important than the textual analysis.

“That might be capitulating to apathy,” she said. “It’s time for new views and different perspectives. Little gets done by adopting the status quo.”