After a quiet campaign week, students will head to the polls today to elect the leaders of next year's Student Assembly and Class Councils.
Voters will also elect 20 new Green Key members and three students to serve on the Committee on Standards. Green Key is the College's student service society and COS is the judicial body responsible for enforcing College rules.
Many have speculated that the race determining the composition of the general Assembly is more important for the future of student government than the presidential and vice-presidential races.
Voting takes place in 101 Collis Center between 11 a.m. and 7 p.m.
The entire student body is eligible to vote for the five Student Assembly presidential candidates - Jim Brennan '96, Jeremy Katz '95, Danielle Moore '95, Caleb Scott '97 and Kenji Sugahara '95.
All candidates have promised internal reform of the Assembly, vowing to remove the political divisiveness that has hindered the body this past year.
Brennan, Katz and Sugahara all pledged to increase student services. Moore's campaign stressed the importance of the president helping the Assembly act as a liaison between the administration and the student body.
Scott said the Assembly should abide by the will of the students.
Alex Morgan '95 and Rukmini Sichitiu '95 are the only candidates for vice president.
Students will also elect 24 members to serve on the general Assembly. The Assembly's recently revised constitution increased the number of representatives from 21, and also gave more power to the general Assembly.
Last year 21 conservative students, led my Matt Calkins '94, formed a group called Reform SA! in an effort to capture all 21 general Assembly seats. Running on a pro-Greek, student service platform, the conservative bloc captured 15 seats.
This year, 24 predominantly conservative students, led by Andrew Bender '96 and Scott Rowekamp '97, formed The Union for Reasonable Student Government, a slate running on a platform of cooperation.
"I think it presents the general student body with a unified choice," Bender said. "We all pledge that we will work well together; we all feel like we could."
But others, although not commenting specifically about The Union for Reasonable Student Government, said it is important that students elect individuals on the basis of their own ideas rather than their affiliations.
Dean of Student Life Holly Sateia, who is the Assembly's faculty adviser, said students should vote carefully for at-large representatives.
"I hope people would vote for individuals - listen to each individual running for office - not just go and blindly vote for whomever," Sateia said.
Current Assembly president Nicole Artzer '94 also stressed the importance of the general Assembly. She cited legitimacy as the principle purpose of the general Assembly.
"Legitimacy lies within the general representation," Artzer said. "You have to take into account who these people are - and I'm not sure that was done last year."
Director of Student Activities Tim Moore said the campaign, up until last night, had been fairly clean.
"We haven't had to deal with any major complaints at this point in time," he said last night. "It's not over yet."
Last year's election was marred by negative campaigning and several violations of election guidelines, including a charge of campaign overspending that led to the resignation of President-elect Stewart Shirasu.
