Dea and Hirs take UGBC election with 67 percent of vote

Al Dea, CSOM '10, and Alex Hirs, A&S '10, captured 2,655 of the 3,967 votes cast on Thursday and Friday to win the Undergraduate Government of Boston College (UGBC) presidential election. Dea and Hirs received 67 percent of the total votes cast.

Forty-four percent of the undergraduate student body voted in the election, a marked increase from the 24 percent who voted in the primary election. Forty-three percent of the student body voted in last year's final election.

The sexual health referendum, which was added to the ballot by a group called BC Students for Sexual Health and calls for support for affordable sexually transmitted infections testing, the availability of prescription birth control medication, and condoms on campus, passed with 89 percent of the vote.

Dea and Hirs credited their election as president and vice president of the UGBC to the hard work of those who aided their campaign.

"I'm very proud of my team and the hard work we've done. We've just tried to work hard each day, leave it all out there, and have fun doing it," Dea said. "We can all say that this is one of the cleaner elections in recent years, and its been a privilege to be challenged by the opposing teams."

Though Dea and Hirs will not officially take office until April 30, they said that their work has already begun.

"We've already started trying to set up meetings with administrators and set up transitions in the cabinet. We'd like to sit down with the other teams to get their thoughts - a lot of them had some good ideas - and find out what they think is important," Dea said. "We also need to work with the current cabinet in terms of getting advice for the direction of the future of the UGBC and see how that plays into what we want to do."

Dea credited the success of his campaign to both the well roundedness of his ticket's platform and his team's visibility on campus.

"We've been very visible on campus, doing dorm walks and talking to students, and people do appreciate when you take the time to talk to them, and not only share your ideas, but ask them for theirs," Dea said. "People respect the experience we've had in UGBC and at Boston College in general, and they felt comfortable casting their vote for someone dedicated to making this place better."

Dea and Hirs both said that while they were pleased to maintain a voter turnout similar to the one seen in last year's final election, they would have liked to see more students casting votes.

"Overall, knowing how turnout generally is, I'm happy with it, but I remember hearing that Vanderbilt had 70 percent voter turnout. I wish we had greater numbers, but I think the sexual health referendum really boosted the numbers," Hirs said. "We can always do a better job with publicity, and it's a tough process, but I'm happy that at least 40 percent voted."

Dea said that he doesn't intend to disregard those who didn't vote for him, or didn't vote at all.

"I'm pleased with 40 percent, but that also means there's 60 percent who weren't convinced, or who didn't vote," Dea said. "We need to make sure we're representing all BC students, not just the ones who vote."

Because the sexual referendum passed by an overwhelming 89 percent, Dea and Hirs will adopt what was presented in the referendum as the official stance of the UGBC.

"We will absolutely meet with the administration to defend the student voice," Hirs said. "We want to meet with [Vice President of Student Affairs] Patrick Rombalski and have conversations with him from the start, and work with the student body to feel out what we need on campus, and from there push the administration."

Dea expressed similar thoughts: "Since it's a concern of students, we need to work with the administration to voice those concerns," he said. "We need to have those challenging conversations and that dialogue so all of us can understand. Because it did pass, it is something we need to address very soon."

Though restructuring the UGBC was a major aspect of the platform of Reilly Dinius, A&S '10, and Nick Kazimiroff, A&S '11, Dea and Hirs also hope to assess the effectiveness of the organization's current structure.

"We feel confident in the results we've had getting initiatives passed. Alex and I are going to sit down and take a look at the cabinet, position by position," Dea said. "If there are [changes to be made], ideally, we would add a few positions that focus on academics, an important part of UGBC that we haven't tapped into yet."

Dea noted that he would ensure that the organization does not grow too large. "That's caused a lot of problems in the past," he said.

The UGBC's relationship with the AHANA Leadership Council (ALC) and the GLBTQ Leadership Council (GLC) was also an important aspect of the election. The ALC and GLC both used the "Through Our Eyes" debate, the final debate, and letters to The Heights to question the candidates on how they will serve the AHANA and GLBTQ communities.

"The ALC and GLC are semiautonomous, but their issues don't have to be," Dea said. "We especially want to reach out to the culture clubs. They're mostly sound, self-efficient organizations, but we want to offer as much support as we can and we're happy to support their initiatives."

He said that he intends to maintain constant communication with the leadership of both the ALC and GLC. "We want to continue attending their meetings and talking often to find out what issues are important to them, and how we can support them."

Elizabeth Ryan, co-president of the GLC and CSON '09, is pleased with the results of the election.

"I personally have a long-standing relationship with Al and Alex and I know what dedicated, passionate and thoughtful guys they are," Ryan said. "They know and respect the issues that the GLC faces and have been involved with our work in some fashion all year. I have high hopes for next year in continuing to build on UGBC relations as we have with the Denice Montenegro administration, working together collaboratively for a more unified UGBC."