The Colby Echo

Issue date: 3/16/07 Section: News & Features

Nicholas Cade '08 and Jeffrey Mullins '08

After 96 hours of deliberating from when polls opened last Monday to the time the run-offs ended today, the student body has elected its representatives for the Student Government Association in the 2007-2008 academic year. Nicholas Cade '08 and Jeffrey Mullins '08 will be next year's president and vice president respectively.

The election was conducted by current SGA Vice President Michelle Starr '07 with help from President Tom Testo '07.

Cade and Mullins, SGA's current secretary and parliamentarian respectively, gained 47% of the votes in the initial election, the most between the three tickets, but not enough to win outright. Because they did not win over half the votes initially, the decision came to a run-off between Cade-Mullins and the runners up, Stephen Frechette '08 and Katherine Boyce '08, who had won 36%. The run-off again favored Cade-Mullins, who won 53% of the 1,131 votes.

Tim Williams '08 defeated Eric Holstein '08, also in a run-off, to become next year's treasurer. Williams won 653 to 438. Next year's senior class representatives will be Cassandra Jendzejec '08 and Sarah Switchenko '08, having won 61% of their run-off.

"The transition process begins now," Cade said about his upcoming term, which will begin later this spring. He will need to appoint presidents for the eight residence halls that did not elect a representative by room draw, which begins on Apr. 15.

The presidential election came down to the wire in both the initial and run-off elections. At 12:15 this afternoon, Mullins sat in class expecting the worst. At 12:17 he received the news via text message that he had won by a mere 3%. The strategy that he and Cade had worked on had paid off. "We stuck to issues that we knew we could address," said Cade. "We didn't promise anything or talk about anything that we didn't know we could do. We never made sweeping, general promises that weren't feasible or realistic."

Cade said he hopes to get started on putting his platform into effect even before the end of this year. He hopes to make steps towards reforming the jitney service to resemble more of a shuttle. Along with the class representative elects, he will examine the proceedings of senior week and decide how to program the Class of 2008's celebration next spring. Plans are also in the works for a Waterville festival next fall that will bring together students and town residents. Cade and Mullins plan to meet with a lawyer later this year to compose a "Know Your Rights" pamphlet for students to better understand local laws.

Frechette expressed his confidence in Cade and Mullins, but said that his own future with the SGA remains to be decided. He acknowledges that his career may not be over, and hopes that some of the ideas in his own platform might also come to fruition during Cade and Mullins's presidency. "Hopefully Nick and Jeff will be willing to work with us if we decide to go that route, that they will be interested in possibly pursuing some of the ideas that we had." Cade said that he plans to accept applications from the entire school for the appointments he will have to make to the SGA.

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