At the semester's first meeting of the Undergraduate Council of Students last night, Sarah Saxton-Frump '07 was elected as president to fill the vacancy left when Brian Bidadi '06 resigned last week for medical reasons.
"My goal is to go big or go home," Saxton-Frump said of her impending term. She said she intends to "fight for students and fight hard."
"I have experience with the administrators. I can speak administrator-ese without sacrificing the wishes of the student body," she said.
Saxton-Frump's election opened up the position of vice president, which she had previously held. Zachary Townsend '08, formerly chair of the Admissions and Student Services Committee, was elected to the position.
"I have a unique amount of knowledge about this University," Townsend said. "The student body often doesn't feel empowered through the UCS because the UCS takes on smaller problems. The UCS needs to take on more of a leadership role and tackle more serious issues."
For now, Townsend will focus his attention on the problem of reforming the council's voluminous code, about which he said he knows a "freakishly large amount of information."
Halley Wuertz '08 was elected to replace Townsend as chair of the Admissions and Student Services Committee. Wuertz initiated a program to provide board games for undergraduates last semester.
The position of academic and administrative affairs chair was also open after David Beckoff '08 resigned last week for medical reasons. Tristan Freeman '07, formerly chair of the Communications Committee, ran unopposed to fill the seat.
"We want to give students more of a say in any number of key issues on the Brown campus," Freeman said. He plans to lead a "coordinated outreach effort" to gauge student opinion on such issues as the potential addition of pluses and minuses to the University's grading system.
"We can ask directly through WebCT polls, office hours, dorm rounds," he said.
Michael Thompson '07, formerly UCS secretary, was elected to fill the position vacated by Freeman. Thompson, who referred to himself as a "details person," served as vice chair of the Communications Committee last semester.
"We've done great work thus far," Thompson said. "Some people underestimate us, but communications is so important for the student body."
Sara Damiano '08 was elected to fill the position of secretary. She also claimed to be invested in details, and promised to work as an archivist for UCS as well as secretary. Damiano has served on the Communications Committee, which she said will be useful because the secretary also serves as vice chair of communications.
Also available was the position of treasurer, which William Cunningham '07 vacated to spend the semester abroad. Jonathan Margolick '06, formerly UCS's representative to the Undergraduate Finance Board, was elected to fill the position.
"I know how to balance a checkbook," Margolick said in regards to his appropriateness for the position. Concerning goals for the future, Margolick intends to push harder to have money allocated on a more even basis to student groups.
"We back down from the administration in a lot of things we don't have to," Margolick said.
Former Student Activities Committee Chair Cash McCracken '08 was elected to fill the position of UFB representative. McCracken had previously served as a member of UFB in his position as SAC chair. He hopes to "help shape the University budget" and get "what's best for the student body." He gave up a position on the executive board to pursue the UFB position and made clear his hopes of later being elected to the University Resources Committee.
The council elected Sara Gentile '09 as the new chair of the Student Activities Committee. Gentile acknowledged that the position will require a lot more work than she is used to, but said she is "willing to become more committed." She plans to pursue the improvement of club sports and will work to reform of the categorization of campus groups, saying that many groups receive either more or less money than they deserve.
Five positions for at-large representatives were available to any undergraduate student who wanted to run. Melissa Revotskie '09, Miguel Blancarte Jr. '09, John Gillis '07, Lauren Kolodny '08 and Kate Brockwehl '08 were all elected to these spots.
During the election of the at-large representatives, Brandon English '06, who came to observe the meeting, confronted the executive board, claiming that the rounds of elections were unfair because they denied the right of every undergraduate student to vote for such important positions in student government. Saxton-Frump and Appointments Chair Benjamin Boas '06.5 called a recess to speak to English privately and explain the importance of immediate elections.
"The process we have right now is not optimal," Saxton-Frump told The Herald after the meeting. "They saw and understood that." For practical purposes, however, Saxton-Frump felt it necessary that the elections proceed. She claimed that alerting the entire student body to the elections and having them vote for every position would have taken far too long. The elections of the evening were not ideal, she said, but they were necessary.
"If you don't have rules, you won't get anything done," she said. She promised to work on reforming the infamously convoluted code in the future, but added that "it takes a while to write something that's good." In the meantime, Saxton-Frump said she intends to apologize to the student body for the inaccessible internal elections.
