With the only other candidate for vice president disqualified, last week's Graduate Student Association elections ended in victory for the three unopposed contenders left; Aubrey Balcom for president, Jillian Flood for vice president and Saaket Varma for treasurer.
Xiao Jun Shan, a Ph.D. candidate in cognitive psychology, was the second candidate for the vice-presidency, but was eliminated from the running after appearing too close to voting booths during the three-day election, according to GSA Election Committee chair Paromita Guha.
"That is strictly prohibited," Guha said. "As a candidate, he should have known that."
Shan also tried to book a room through Student Life to provide food for prospective voters, a move that led to a warning from the election committee.
"It was almost like bribery," Guha said, but she let him continue his campaign after the warning. After the second violation (and receiving 87 votes) he was deemed ineligible - still 42 votes shy of the 129 votes that went to Flood, a Ph.D. student for counseling psychology.
Balcom, a Ph.D. student in geography, won the presidency with 151 votes; Varma, a Ph.D. student in biochemistry won the office of treasurer with 164 votes.
The uneven number of total votes, according to Guha, is because many voters abstained from making choices for unopposed candidates. The low overall poll numbers are due to "student apathy."
"They (graduate students) didn't want to vote, it's as if they didn't care," Guha said.
Noting that the GSA controls over $600,000, Guha said, "it would seem like they would want to control where it's going."
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
