The nominees for Student Council's (StuCo) Executive Board became official last Thursday as qualified students turned in their petitions, each requiring 300 signatures, and attended the mandatory StuCo meeting.
There are eight nominees for a total of four positions: Chris Cunico, Manish Gala and Audrey Henderson for President; Priti Dalal and Ankush Gupta for Vice-President for Administration; James Cakmak and Jackie Chan for Secretary; and Elise Roecker for Treasurer.
If Henderson wins, she will be the first female StuCo Executive Board President that JHU has seen since it decided to admit female students.
With some candidates running unopposed for positions and some positions without any candidates running, this election is not functioning typically. The Vice President for Institutional Relations candidate Bob Alleman, who was running unopposed a week ago, stepped down from his nomination, leaving no candidates currently running for the position. In addition, Roecker is running unopposed for Treasurer.
Current Student Council President Anuj Mittal said that "the situation [involving Alleman] is problematic."
"There has been talk about abolishing the position, but hopefully, there won't be any dramatic changes," Mittal said. "We are now reformatting the utility role in Student Council."
Board of Elections Co-Chair Erika Stoddard said that this year's goal is to have a greater student turn-out at the elections. To initiate this, the board has abolished the formal debates by the candidates, and instead, set up a candidate forum where students can "meet and greet" the candidates as well as ask them questions.
"We are trying different styles to affect student body turn-out and make the process more personal," Stoddard said. "We also are going to try mass e-mails, sent from each of the class presidents, in order to inform more students of the election."
The election will take place this Monday from noon to 9 p.m. by the use of a single transferable vote (STV) in voting booths by Wolman, the MSE library, the athletic center and MegaBYTES.
