By THE DAILY ASSU ELECTIONS TEAM
Saturday afternoon,after chantsof “Oh-twelve,”“Oh-leven”and“Oh-ten”filled a packed CoHo,theASSU Elections Commissionannounced the newly-elected classpresident winners.For sophomoreclass president,the “So-phly”slateclaimed victory,while “TheEvolution”and “We’re on a Boat”won for junior class president andsenior class president,respectively.“So-phly”won with 673 votesover its next closest competitor,“Hardcore as a Sophomore,”whichtook 393 votes after the secondround of voting.The new sopho-more class president slate consistsof Marie Caligiuri,Adrian Castillo,Taylor Goodspeed and IsabelleWijangco.Caligiuri was surprised over thevote count,but attributed the winto the slate’s endorsements andcampaign strategy.“I think one of the things that setus apart was that we were the onlyslate that was endorsed by theStudents for a Sustainable Stanford,”she said.“We tried not to spam people—we introduced ourselves to peopleand kept the emails to a minimum.”Running uncontested,“TheEvolution”was elected with 752votes.The new junior class presi-dents include Mona El-Haidi,Dante DiCicco,Pamon Forouharand Pilar Wong.“We’re on a Boat,”consistingof Walter Foxworth,Ansaf Kareem,Dan Ha and ClaireRoscow,claimed the senior classpresident position with 487 votes.The next closest competitor,“Stuntin’ is our Habit,”took 291votes after two rounds of voting.
ASSU ELECTIONS
Class presidents elected for ’09-’10
By ZOE RICHARDS
STAFF WRITER
Despite the economic reces-sion,which may have cast doubtsregarding student support for spe-cial fees,all special fees fundingrequests on this year’s ballotpassed.The success of all 44organizations is unprecedented—in the past 10 elections,nine of which report special fees results,at least one group failed to garnera large enough constituency topass.Special fees are an imperativesource of funding for many regis-tered student groups to collectfunding that cannot be coveredthrough the general fees budget.In order to receive special fees,each group needs over 50 percentof “yes”votes on its ballot,indi-cating the voter’s support of fund-ing for the individual group.Even KZSU,the Stanford stu-dent radio station,which wasdropped from special fees lastyear,received 63.53 percent sup-port from undergraduate voters,securing funding for the upcomingacademic year.According to KZSU Chief Sports Engineer Kevin Danna ‘09,the radio station changed its strat-egy by running for undergraduatespecial fees as opposed to request-ing fees from both the undergrad-uate and graduate communities.The joint ballot is generally con-sidered harder to pass.Among the top five most sup-ported organizations,each receiv-ing over 80 percent of the “yes”vote from students,were theSexual Health Peer ResourceCenter (SHPRC),StudentInitiated Courses (SIC),StanfordClub Sports,The Stanford Daily
Senateseats splitamongcoalitions
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By THE DAILY ASSU ELECTIONS TEAM
David Gobaud ‘08 M.S.‘10 had morethan his 25th birthday to celebrateSaturday.Gobaud and running mate Jayde la Torre ‘10 picked up almost twice asmany votes as runners-up Bennett Hauser‘10 and Matt Sprague ‘10,winning theASSU Executive Race 3,190 to 1,666 votesin the second round.Following the announcement,de laTorre,with tears in his eyes,hugged downa line of eager supporters.The newly pro-claimed ASSU Vice President waveredfrom disbelief to uncontrolled joy as hedelivered one tight embrace after another.“I’m a little emotional right now,”hesaid,10 minutes after the results were pub-licized.“I’m on cloud nine here.I can’treally describe how I feel.”More reserved,second-time candidateGobaud accepted congratulations from hisrunning mate then stood by shocked aswell wishers offered their congratulations.It was just one year ago when Gobaud,who ran for Executive previously withGreg Goldgof ‘08,was on the losing slateat elections night,congratulatingExecutives Jonny Dorsey ‘09 and FaganHarris ‘09.“[Winning is] a great honor,and weaccept this with gratitude,”he said.“It wasa long race with many highs and lows,butBen [Hauser] and Matt [Sprague] aregreat people,and we look forward toworking with them this year without adoubt.”All eyes were on Gobaud and de laTorre after the initial vote count wasreleased,which had the Gobaud/de laTorre slate at 3,055 votes and the Hauser-Sprague slate at 1,546 votes.With the officenearly assured,Gobaud still held hisbreath until the final tally was revealed.“In preparation,I told myself,‘I’m notgoing to win,I’m not going to win,’”de laTorre said,though he couldn’t control hisexcitement once he was declared the vic-tor.Gobaud and de la Torre immediatelycut through the crowd to shake hands withthe second-place slate,Hauser andSprague.Hauser plans to maintain his commit-ment to the Stanford Store.“We ran in this because we both want-ed to help Stanford,and I think that’s stillpossible,”Sprague added.Hauser said his slate’s defeat came inpart due to its failure to win big endorse-ments,which he acknowledged “played abig role.”Gobaud and de la Torre wereendorsed by the current Executives JonnyDorsey ‘09 and Fagan Harris ‘09,theQueer Coalition and The Stanford DailyEditorial Board,among other groups.But Gobaud attributed his win to hiselection team,not his endorsements.“Endorsements are important but real-ly we have an amazing team that withoutthem this wouldn’t have been possible,”hesaid.Hauser called on his supporters to givethe new ASSU administration their fullbacking,despite Saturday’s results.He pointed out that about 35 percent of students who selected the slate as theirfirst choice did not vote for Gobaud and dela Torre in the final round.“We have to be coming together 100percent,”Hauser said.John Lyman and Garrett Werner,of the“Just A Couple Of Affable,Public Service-Oriented Guys Trying To Help TheStudent Body Exercise Its Voice WhileAlso Bridging The Gap Between OurPeers And The Faculty/AdministrativeComplex”slate,were eliminated in thefirst round after receiving 265 votes.After the election-day excitement hadcalmed down,Gobaud was still surprisedby the results.“We thought the race was very close,”he said.“[Sprague] and [Hauser] are greatguys,and they ran a great campaign.Wewere nervous to the last minute.”Hauser and Sprague were equallyunsure of the outcome before the finalmoment.“It was impossible to predict the finaloutcome—it seemed like everyone had adifferent opinion about how things werelooking,”Hauser wrote in an email to The
By THE DAILY ASSU ELECTIONSTEAM
At the end of last week’s ASSUelections,Students for a BetterStanford (SBS) had eight candidateselected to the ASSU UndergraduateSenate,and the Students of ColorCoalition (SOCC) had seven.Withmore votes needed to make the top15 this year when compared to 2008,endorsements factored in moreheavily than ever.SOCC-endorsed Mohammad Ali‘10 had the highest vote total,with1,222 votes.Dual-endorsed AntonZietsman ‘12 was second,followedby SBS leader and current SenateChair Shelley Gao ‘11 in third.“I feel really good,very happy,”said Ali,who “definitely did not”expect to win the highest number of votes.Throughout the campaign sea-son,SBS and SOCC insisted thatthey were not rivals.Next year’sSenate will be almost evenly dividedbetween the two groups.The only candidate to be electedwithout the backing of either SOCCor SBS was incumbent SenatorZachary Johnson ‘10,who placed12th with 902 votes.“I mainly utilized the connec-tions I’d already made throughStanford,the Senate and studentgroups,”Johnson said,speaking of his campaign tactics.Johnson,though,was never com-pletely certain of his strategy of campaigning alone.“To be honest,I was slightly wor-ried in the beginning,”he said.“Buteven the perception of one coalitionagainst another encumbers theprocess,and that’s why I chose notto join.”SBS member Zach Warma ‘11,acolumnist for The Daily,down-played the influence of the endorse-ments.“I think for the two primary play-ers in this campaign—of SBS andSOCC—[their success] didn’tspeak to the strengths of any twopresumed coalitions,but spoke tothe strength of the people who gotelected,”he said.Gao,who won the highest num-ber of votes in last year’s Senateelections with 1,124 votes,was visi-bly disappointed when her namefailed to come up in the first and sec-ond Senate spots.Gao came in thirdwith 1,177 votes.“I’m very grateful for the oppor-tunity to serve the student bodyagain,”she said.Gao declined fur-ther comment,other than notingthat she is the only woman electedto the Senate this year.While the Senate is composed of mainly SBS and SOCC candidates,Warma assured that the endorse-ments will not negatively impact theSenate.“Our primary concern,whatevercomes from SBS...is now aboutgovernance and consensus-drivenaction,”he said.“It becomes thatmuch more real,now that it’s notabout us versus them,but 15 peoplesitting in the Senate trying to make abetter Stanford.”Warma noted that the SBSFacebook group had been deleted asof Sunday.SOCC-endorsed senate-elect,Michael Cruz ‘12,claimed that therehave already been steps take to pre-vent senate division.“It’s going to be an interestingyear,”he said.“We’ve already takensteps to prevent sectionalism by try-ing to get to know one another on apersonal level.Basically we’ve justbeen saying we all need to gettogether.”This year’s Senate candidatesalso faced a tougher race than in
REYNA KONTOS/The Stanford Daily
ASSUElections
TOP
AGUSTIN RAMIREZ/The Stanford Daily:
Jay de la Torre ‘10 can’thold back the tears as he and running mate David Gobaud ‘08M.S. ‘10 claim victory as ASSU Executives for the 2009-2010academic year. The slate won with 3,055 total votes.
BOTTOM
AGUSTINRAMIREZ/The Stanford Daily:
Bennett Hauser ‘10and Matt Sprague ‘10 look on as results are read out in the CoHo.Hauser attributed the loss to his slate’s failure to win major endorse-ments, as well as to the disparity in graduate voting.
Index
Opinions/4 • Sports/7 •Classifieds/8
Recycle Me
SPORTS/7
BESTING BRUINS
Stanford baseball takes two in three-gameseries against UCLA
TheStanf ord Daily
An Independent Publication
MONDAY Volume 235
April 13, 2009Issue 35
www.stanforddaily.com
Thenf nf
Today
Mostly Sunny
6344
Tomorrow
Windy & Sunny
5943
SPORTS/7
COME AGAIN
Men’s volleyball recovers from five-setloss to win second meeting with BYU, 3-0
ARNAV MOUDGIL/The Stanford Daily
Brian Wanyoike ‘12 embraces a sup-porter in the CoHo after being electedan undergraduate senator. Wanyoikewas one of seven freshmen elected for the Undergraduate Senate.
Please see
SENATE
,page 3
ASSU ELECTIONS
All groups are awarded special fees
Please see
FEES
,page 3Please see
EXECS
,page 3
44 organizations applied for funding
“[Winning is] a greathonor,and we acceptthis with gratitude.It was a long race withmany highs andlows...”
—
DAVID GOBAUD ‘08M.S. ‘10, ASSU President-elect
SBS grabs eight seats; SOCC takes seven; Aliwins with most votes
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