Shanzé Tahir ’19 was elected the next president of the Undergraduate Council of Students and Camila Pelsinger ’20 was elected the next vice president, announced co-chairs of the UCS election board Katherine Barry ’19 and Kathryn Stack ’19 Thursday night on the steps of the Stephen Roberts ’62 Campus Center.
Lisa Schold ’19 won the race for chair of the Undergraduate Finance Board, and Julian De Georgia ’20 ran unopposed for UFB vice chair.
All elected will assume their positions next semester.
Tahir received 82 percent of 2,274 votes to defeat Fabrice Guyot-Sionnest ’20. Neither currently holds a position in UCS. Pelsinger, current UCS chair of campus life, overtook William Zhou ’20, chair of student activities, with 57 percent of the 2,193 votes cast for the position. Schold, former UCS-UFB liaison, defeated current UFB Vice Chair Drew To ’19, for the title of UFB chair with about 72 percent of the approximately 1,550 votes cast. De Georgia, currently an at-large UFB member, received 1,280 votes.
About 81 percent of students — 1,903 of the 2,355 who voted — favored the referendum concerning legacy admissions.
The referendum asked whether the University should “disclose all internally written admissions policies and disaggregated data about legacy treatment” and further “charge a joint committee of students, alumni and administrators to re-examine the use of legacy status in the admissions process,” according to the text of the ballot. The referendum was added to the ballot in response to advocacy from the #FullDisclosure campaign and was approved in a vote by the UCS general body at its weekly meeting March 14.
Roughly 35 percent of the undergraduate student body voted in this year’s presidential election — 2,274 out of approximately 6,580 students. This represents an increase from last year, when 18 percent — or 1,148 students — voted for current UCS President Chelse-Amoy Steele ’18, who ran unopposed.
Mar Weiss ’20 was re-elected as the chair of academic affairs, defeating Claudia Liu ’21. Current UCS treasurer Alex Song ’20 defeated Rainy Duan ’21 for chair of student activities.
Shivani Nishar ’20 will be the next chair of student wellness, overtaking Cole Hansen ’19 and incumbent Sharon Zeldin ’20. Melissa Lee ’20 defeated Sara Kutscher ’20 and Claire Heiden ’21 in the race for chair of campus life.
Austin Lessin ’19, who ran unopposed, will assume the role of UCS treasurer.
The four candidates who ran for UFB representative at-large will begin their terms next year — Phillip Champagne ’21, Nimo Ismail ’21, Daryl Polk ’19 and Alesandro Walker ’20. Four at-large positions remain open.
The campaign process officially began after candidates each submitted petitions with 200 signatures at a meeting March 14. The candidates for UCS president and vice president and UFB chair and vice chair debated in a public forum March 18. Voting began March 20 and ended yesterday at noon.
Tahir declined a request from The Herald to comment just after the election results were announced.
The UCS elections board was unable to provide the total number of students who cast a ballot before press time, Barry wrote in an email to The Herald. Last year, approximately 1,400 students cast a ballot.
