(The Beacon)
By Rosemary Peters, Editor-in-Chief -- peters12@up.edu
The ASUP 2012-2013 Executive Board was announced last night, with junior Julia Balistreri securing the title of secretary in the only contested spot in the election.
"I have been wanting this since freshman year," said Secretary-Elect Balistreri, who received 50.1 percent of the total number of votes.
Opponent and junior Stephanie Fekete received 34.1 percent of the vote. Junior Austin Veiga received 10 percent with 93 write-in votes.
"Nine hundred and thirty-six individual students cast a ballot, which is lower than previous years, but considered a success by ASUP due to the fact the slate of candidates had only one contested position," Director of Student Activities Jeromy Koffler said in an email.
In fact, this year's voter turnout of 30.5 percent was 14 percent points lower than last year's, and it was the lowest voter turnout since the elections went online in 2008.
Juniors Brock Vasconcellos, Kyle Hamm, Caitlin Chu and Sean Ducey all received more than the required 10 percent of the campus vote, clinching their positions as next year's president, vice president, treasurer and campus program board director, respectively. Chu and Ducey will be serving a second term on the ASUP Executive Board.
"It will be great to have those two," Vasconcellos said. "They can provide Kyle and I with a few pointers along the way."
Vasconcellos and Hamm plan on making several changes and improvements to the way ASUP operates, such as addressing the relationship between students and Bon Appétit as well as improving communication between ASUP and the student body through town-hall style meetings and suggestion boxes.
"Bon Appétit just raised their prices and now they're going to start charging for to-go boxes," Vasconcellos said. "We want to set up a meeting with them and see where they're coming from. Build a relationship and be respectful."
Vasconcellos and Hamm also plan to make ASUP more accessible to students.
"We ran on a platform of inclusivity," Vasconcellos said. "We want to make the student government more welcoming."
