Record number of students elect the 24th VSA Council

By a margin of 477 votes, Caitlin Ly '10 was elected President of the Vassar Student Association (VSA) following a results party at 12:30 a.m. on the morning of April 28. Ly, who defeated outgoing VSA Vice President (VP) for Student Life Nate Silver '10, will be the first female VSA President in five years.

The outgoing members of the VSA Executive Board also announced each of their successors: Brian Farkas '10 as VP for Operations, Stephanie Damon-Moore '11 as VP Academics, Aaron Grober '11 as VP for Activities and Scott Pascal '10 as VP for Finance.

Though Rachel Gilmer '11 was elected in the run-off voting on April 28 as the VP for Student Life, she has since withdrawn her candidacy for personal reasons, in accordance with Article 9, Section XVII of the VSA Bylaws, which allows any member of the VSA to appeal the results of an election 24 hours after results are posted. According to the run-off voting system, Elizabeth Anderson '11, who initially came in second to Gilmer by a margin of only 30 votes, was elected to take her place.

"I firmly believe," wrote Anderson in her candidate statement, "that my leadership experience has prepared me to work diligently as the liaison between students and administrative offices such as Residential Life, Food Services and Security. Additionally, I am very involved in the Vassar community and want to be an advocate of the student voice. I will actively seek out student opinions and make myself available to all students."

Beyond the Executive Board, Board of Elections co-Chairs Marcelo Buitron '09 and Maryrose Myrtetus '09 read the results of elections for house teams, committees and class councils.

Before outgoing VSA President Jimmy Kelly '09 read aloud the name of the president-elect, he gave a brief speech and warned, "I might cry." When he announced Ly's name, she and Silver embraced amid loud cheers from the crowd.

In the face of what Kelly predicts will be "the hardest year in VSA history," Ly expressed her excitement. "I hope I'm up to the task," she said. "I'm incredibly excited about next year. I'm excited to see what Kelly throws at me," Ly joked, half-addressing Kelly, who was standing beside her. "Probably lots of big binders and advice."

Among her priorities for the coming year, Ly named need-blind admission as a policy indispensable to the College's mission, despite the deep financial recession. She also expressed a commitment to increasing Vassar pride through events like Brewer Bash, overhauling Vassar's committee structure and ensuring a principled but pragmatic response to the financial crisis.

In the race for the position of VP for Finance, Pascal, the outgoing President of the Class of 2010, defeated outgoing Cushing House President Mathew Leonard '11 with 55 percent of the vote. "Right now, I want to relax," Pascal said. "[Buitron] said that our training starts tomorrow, though, so I'm ready for that."

In his candidate statement, Pascal promised to "help [VSA-certified] organizations spend their money efficiently. There are a lot of [organizations] that end up paying for the same things, and by eliminating or reducing these redundancies, we make more money available for everyone."

Next year, Pascal hopes to implement an online banking system. "Right now there is a lot of paper work for treasurers just to get simple things done. I will work toward a system in which more and more will be done online," he wrote.

Pascal also promises to take a more moderate approach to certifying new organizations. "As it stands, most organizations' funding is stretched thin, but I don't think there should be a complete certification freeze. I want to handle it on a case-by-case basis. Certain groups are unique and needed while others are not and are already represented by other groups,"  he continued. "I have to assess the VSA's relationship with the College's budget and set boundaries between what the College's funds are for and what the VSA's funds are for."

Farkas, former Editor in Chief of The Miscellany News, is also looking ahead to his new position. "The entire committee structure needs to change," he said. "A huge priority will be to dramatically overhaul Vassar's outmoded committee structure. For too long, Vassar has made decisions through a convoluted system whose hierarchy is unclear, even to the people within the committees. Along with my fellow members of the Executive Board, I will petition the Board of Trustees to revise the committee structure of the College. Once we accomplish that structural change, all other proposals and policies will come much more easily and transparently."

Grober, the incoming VP for Activities, ran unopposed for his position. "I'm grateful to the student body for choosing me over that other guy, ‘No.'" he joked. "The programming needs of students are changing," said Grober. "I plan to encourage [organizations] to think more inclusively about their all-campus programming to draw a more diverse group of attendees to events. The College's financial situation is very different than when my predecessor was elected," Grober said.

Grober, like most of the future Executive Board members, expressed concern about the economic crisis and its effects on the College. He plans to work closely with Pascal to help organizations realize their goals in the face of future budget cuts. "I think Alexandria Dempsey '09, outgoing VP for Activities, has done a great job of really evaluating new organization certifications, and decertifying failing organizations. We need to keep this up next year to make sure that the greater student body is best being served effectively."

Damon-Moore received 40 percent of the vote in the four-person race for VP for Academics. Concerned with budget cuts, Damon-Moore explained, "Changes should be made with respect to what students are most interested in. The idea of multidisciplinary education has a lot of promise in a system in which courses and professors are being removed," she said with regard to academic departments.

An outgoing Josselyn House Student Fellow, Damon-Moore sees her lack of prior experience on the VSA Council as an advantage. "I'm new blood," she said. "I'm looking forward to a re-evaluation of what ‘VSA' means at Vassar." Next year, she will also hold the position of Josselyn House Student Advisor. "The more connections we can have across campus, the better," Damon-Moore said about her two future positions. "I can be an advocate for both." 

This year, a record-breaking 1,505 students voted in the elections.Though Buitron cited some minor difficulties in the election process due to the new run-off voting software, he explained that overall everything went smoothly. "This was the first time that the results were delivered on time since I was a freshman," said Buitron.

After the election results, Kelly expressed his excitement for the 2009-10 VSA Executive Board. "I'm ecstatic," said Kelly. "These are six amazing leaders.