Students filled every seat available in the Student Union office for an information session about union candidacy on Wednesday, Jan 25. Approximately 15 students are running for the available positions.
Midyear, senator-at-large, Ridgewood, Ziv, Charles River/567 and the Mods seats need to be filled. Senators represent their constituency in votes, propose amendments, hold office hours and serve on union committees.
One three-semester and two two-semester seats on the Allocations Board are empty. The Allocations Board two-semester seats currently have the most candidates. A two-semester racial minority seat will also be up for election.
The campaign began at midnight on Wednesday and will end at midnight, Feb. 1. The student body will have 24 hours to vote for the candidate of their choice. Candidates running for a quad senator position may only receive votes from residents of the quad.
The campaigns are paperless. Candidates are not permitted to post fliers or hand out advertising materials such as business cards. They are not allowed to use money to campaign. Libel or slander will result in a loss of candidacy.
Voting is done using Qualtrics in association with the Brandeis UnetIDs. This means that the voting links emailed out are coded to the student that receives the email. If a student were to vote using the link that was sent to a friend, the vote would would be processed as the friend’s vote, not their own. The friend would not be able to cast their own vote.
Most of the candidates have never run for a position on the Student Union. Alanna Levy ’19 is running for the two-semester seat on A-Board. She hopes that working on A-Board will help her “get involved with a lot of communities on campus.”
Brandon Stanaway ’19 is running for Ziv Quad senator. This is his first semester in Ziv because he spent his fall semester living in the Castle. Ziv did not have a senator during the fall semester, and Stanaway runs unopposed. He hopes to improve the health and sustainability of the quad. Stanaway has worked with the Senate Sustainability Committee and Students for Environmental Action (SEA). “Being able to represent the people of that area and improve their lives in any way and the life of the campus in any way really means a lot to me,” he said.
