Luke Howe, CSOM '06, and Ben Nauman, A&S '06, and Reena Parikh and Nick Fuller-Googins, both A&S '06, will enter the final round of elections for the presidential and vice presidential positions of the Undergraduate Government of Boston College (UGBC).
Howe/Nauman received 781 votes, or 23.8 percent of the vote while Parikh/Fuller-Googins got 736 votes, or 22.43 percent of all ballots cast. Close behind the two leading teams were Alex Gray and Kate Reilly, both A&S '06, with 709 votes. Tina Corea and Prabhdeep Singh, both A&S '06, received 641 votes, and Craig Dorsett, A&S '06, and Shannon Keating, LSOE '07, garnered 415 votes.
A total of 3,282 students across the four schools voted in the primaries. There are 8,900 undergraduate students eligible to vote.
Students in the College of Arts & Sciences participated the most with 2,255 votes, comprising 68.71 percent of the total vote.
Parikh noted that the close race was due to the quality of those who ran.
"It was so close and we expected it to be so close because every team that was in it this year worked so hard and wanted it so badly," she said.
She attributed her team's success to her campaign staff.
"We were extremely excited for ourselves but more for people that were working on our campaign," said Parikh. "What we've realized this last week is that our supporters are in it as much for themselves as much as they are for us."
Upon hearing the news, Howe broke the silence in the Student Learning & Support Computing Facility (SLSC).
"I was nervous at first to check for the e-mail," he said. "I work at the SLSC so I got it while I was working. I broke the dead silence with screams of excitement."
He also thanked his campaign staff for their hard work during the primaries.
"The people who were helping us were incredible," he said. "The people who were backing us carried us through."
At the time of the interview, none of the runners-up expressed their move to actively campaign or endorse either Howe/Nauman or Parikh/Fuller-Googins.
Many of the teams were disappointed with the end of the campaign life, but said their volunteers made it a memorable experience.
"It was really disappointing, but it was great to see our supporters to say we ran a great and fair campaign," said Keating. "That mattered the most. It was an incredible experience that I don't regret at all."
Dorsett and Keating said they would still like to push their platform to fruition, whether it be with the UGBC or other organizations.
"I would have to feel certain that whoever wins is committed to some of the same ideas that I'm committed to and work with them rather than work against a system," said Dorsett.
Both said getting a question about the nondiscrimination clause on the final ballot was a huge accomplishment in itself.
"Shannon and I both were happier that the nondiscrimination clause is on the ballot rather than ourselves because it's more important than any campaign," said Dorsett.
Singh said he expected a close race but did not expect the campaign politics that were played.
"I'm disappointed in the process and some of the tactics the candidates have used," he said. "I'm not going to give up my commitment to UGBC. I'll definitely continue to try to help make things better but I don't know what venue yet."
Gray said though they lost, the UGBC is not the only venue in which to affect change on campus.
"It's not that hard to make an impact in your school whether it's in UGBC or any other club," he said. "I don't think our ability to change the school has changed. Though I would have liked to reverse the order [of the election results] if possible."
Both final teams will focus on reenergizing their campaigns during the final weeks of the election season.
"This week is about remobilization and reenergizing our own support and getting back to homework for a week," said Parikh. "For me and Nick it's not really a break at all. We're just trying to start it up again for Monday."
"There's still a long road ahead to becoming the president and vice president of UGBC," said Howe. "We will review our campaign strategy and look at areas that we haven't focused on and think of fun ways to get students informed."
Be the first to comment on this article!