Students at Pitzer College voted from Apr. 12 - 15 to elect several representatives to the college’s student senate. Alex Smith PI ’11 was elected Senate Chair and Leah Kahn PI ’12 was elected Vice Chair, but a second set of elections is currently underway because no candidates originally ran for the other three positions that comprise the body’s executive board.

“I am surprised that no one ran for these positions, especially since there were seven students in total who ran for Chair and Vice Chair,” said Senior Class Representative Megan Dooley PI ’10, who organized and ran the first election. “I think that people are still weary of running for executive board because of all of the drama that has happened in senate this year.”

After the original application and election process failed to produce a Treasurer, a Secretary, a Communications Secretary, or a Junior Class Representative due to a lack of candidates, the senate reopened student-wide application for candidacy right away. Applications for the four vacant positions were due Apr. 23, and voting began Apr. 26. Pitzer students may now submit a ballot online before voting closes at midnight tonight.

Up for election this time around are Nick Tagliarino PI ’11 and Emma Fisher PI ’11 vying for the position of Treasurer and Jon Rice PI ’13 running for Communications Secretary. Once again no candidates stepped forward for Secretary or Junior Class Representative, so those positions will be filled early next semester.

Also on this week’s ballot is a proposal for a constitutional amendment that would reform the senate’s procedure for processing funding requests. The amendment would delegate funding concerns to two committees in hopes of freeing up more time to discuss other issues at senate meetings.

Senate activity has drawn controversy and frustration among students this year, partly due to stark division over a proposal endorsed by the executive board which would have dissolved the senate and instituted a monthly student assembly in its place. In his election platform, Smith made restoring the functionality and credibility of senate a priority.

“My overarching goal as Chair is to restore total community faith in the body,” Smith said. “I plan to do this by fully implementing the pending budget reform. This will allow Senate to act on real student issues, something that it has not done since I at least I was a freshman, probably longer.”

Smith’s plans also include addressing attendance issues and restructuring senate meetings to involve more break-out groups as a means to encourage participation among non-senator students.

“This will help break issues into bite-sized pieces and bring momentum from week to week,” he said.

Eleven other senators were voted in along with Smith and Kahn in the election two weeks ago. Chase Dyer PI ’11 was elected Senior Class Representative, Amy Brownstein PI ’13 was elected Sophomore Class Representative, Sophy Cohen PI ’13 was elected Student Activities Committee (SAC) Representative, Irene Fransworth PI ’11 was elected to the Academic Planning Committee, Lucia Reynolds PI ’13 and Brittany Fair PI were elected to the Aesthetics Committee, Diamond LaBon PI ‘12 was elected to the Campus Life Committee, Monica Loomba PI ’13 was elected to the External Studies Committee, and Brownstein, Liana Presser PI ’11, and Tim Williamson PI ’13 were elected to Judicial Council.

Confusion over how to count votes in the election was quickly resolved after details of the process of instant-runoff voting, a method adopted into senate’s constitution last year, was clarified. Dooley was nominated by the senate to organize and run the first election because Kahn, who is currently Communications Secretary, could not be involved with election proceedings due to her candidacy, and because “the other current executive board members show up unreliably if at all to Student Senate meetings,” Dooley said. Smith and Kahn are running the second election.

“Alex Smith and Leah Kahn...have a big challenge ahead of them to restore senate’s image and to regain the trust of the Pitzer student body and community at large,” Dooley said. “I have great faith that if they are committed, creative, and most of all open and inclusive, they can rebuild student senate into something better than what has existed before.”