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The Rice Thresher
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by TOMMY BELANGER THRESHER STAFF
Hanszen College juniors Aalok Mehta and Andy Kobylivker, who are roommates, ran against one another for a University Court position under the impression that there were four available. "On the door where you pick up petitions, I saw that there were three [University Court positions] at-large and one left over from the last election," Mehta, a junior, said. Mehta explained that on April 6, after nominations had been made, SA Secretary Catherine Chen informed him that there was only one position up for election. Chen said the candidates were informed as soon as she was aware of the changes. "We never specified a number," Chen said. "We just said that the unfilled positions were up for election." Chen explained that the University Court abolished at-large representatives last semester in favor of individual college representatives. The only reason that a University Court at-large position was up for election during the Spring Elections was that one of the class representatives, Hanszen junior Trushar Sarang, was elected as a write-in candidate and then declined the position. Sarang also lives with Mehta and Kobylivker. "I honestly just think that it was a miscommunication between the SA and the University Court," Chen said. Mehta lost in the elections. "The only thing they said was that if I wanted to file an appeal, I could file one with U. Court," Mehta said, although he views the possibility as "absurd." "[Mehta's] major complaint was that if he had known that the position had been contested, he would have run for something else," Chen said. Another interesting fate befell Mehta and Kobylivker's roommate Sarang, elected by write-in votes to be an Honor Council at-large representative. "My friends just wrote me in," Sarang said, explaining that he was unaware of the fact that he might be elected. Sarang received eight votes overall. "More people should care enough to vote, but they don't," Sarang said. "I don't think eight votes actually represents Rice in general ... Most people don't really care about what the elected officials are doing, probably because they don't know what they do or aren't effected directly by it," he said. Only 245 ballots were counted in the overall election. "Maybe it wasn't publicized as much as it should have been," Chen said. "Students were also apathetic because most of the positions were uncontested." Chen also mentioned that many students probably didn't vote because they didn't know the candidates, a problem for which the SA is searching for solutions. Sarang believes this lack of interest in elected positions at Rice means that "these positions aren't required or that we don't need as many." Sarang was not certain as of Wednesday night whether he would accept the position as Honor Council at-large representative. - back - |
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