There will be a special election on Thursday, Nov. 3, to fill three vacant seats in the Student Union Senate. The position of Charles River/567 senator has been vacant all semester and the positions of Off-Campus and Ridgewood Quad senators have been vacant for approximately one week or one month respectively.

Members of these communities only are eligible to run and vote in their respective elections.

These now-vacant seats were all filled in the general fall-term election on Sept. 8, according to an email from Union Secretary Gabriela Gonzalez Anavisca ’19, who has also served as chief of elections this semester.

However, the Union quickly amended the appointment of Gaby Schwartz ’18 as Charles River/567 senator since the “abstain” option received a majority of votes cast. If “abstain” wins the majority, no candidate is elected, according to Union bylaws.

The other two senate seats for Ridgewood Quad and the off-campus community were won by José Castellanos ’18 and Nick Love ’17, respectively. Castellanos resigned on Sept. 26. Love was removed from his position on Oct. 21 for missing “four Senate meetings and a number of committee meetings,” which is a violation of Union bylaws, said Vice President Paul Sindberg ’18 in an email to The Brandeis Hoot.

There was an information session on Sept. 19 for Charles River/567 residents interested in running for the vacant seat, which was announced in an email to Charles River/567 residents. However, there was no election was held to fill the seat since no students were interested, Gonzalez Anavisca explained in an interview with The Brandeis Hoot.

Now, with three vacant seats needing to be filled, there will be a special election on Nov. 3. There was another information session for potential candidates in the Student Union office this past Wednesday, broadcast through emails sent to students in each of the three communities.

Like the session on Sept.19, no one appeared. However, there are three people officially on the ballot for the Off-Campus senator position. Maya Dornbrand-Lo ’18, Matthew Stenerson ‘’
Jonah Skobeloff

One of them, Maya Dornbrand-Lo ’18, formally announced her candidacy and will be appearing on the ballot sent to off-campus residents next week. No potential candidates have yet come forward for the vacant Ridgewood Quad or Charles River/567 seats.

Any interested candidates will have until Monday, Oct. 31, to talk with Gonzalez Anavisca and get their name on the ballot. If no one enters to run for the Ridgewood or Charles River/567 senator positions, the ballots on Nov. 3 will include two options: “abstain” and a write-in field.

Gonzalez Anavisca, while dejected with the lack of turnout for both this latest information session and the one on Sept. 19, spoke about her experiences as chief of elections meeting with students interested in running for Union positions. “They want to be a voice of the people. They want to represent and help make this community better,” Gonzalez Anavisca recalled from her conversations at the beginning of the semester for the fall elections. “Some just want to make their quads better, or if they’re a senior, they want to make the whole experience better.”