After an uncontested election, Sarah Besnoff, BC ’09 was officially named next year’s Student Government Association president in results released Sunday evening.
Along with Besnoff, the new SGA executive board will be VP of Student Activities Maria Morad, BC ’09, VP of Communications Katie Palillo BC ’10, and VP of Finance Amy Chen, BC ’10.
According to current SGA President Laura Stoffel, about 600 students—slightly less than a third of the student body—voted in this year’s election, which is a significantly smaller number than in previous years. Last year, a record-breaking 49.6 percent of students voted, while in 2006, 40.1 percent voted. Stoffel said the decrease in voting was likely a result of the construction on Barnard’s campus, which has left students with “no communal space to talk about elections” this year.
“We have an amazing team for next year,” Stoffel said. “3 of the 4 people who were elected have SGA experience, and Sarah Besnoff has all of the institutional memory and experience she needs to lead a successful year.”
Besnoff has served on SGA since her first year, and was this year’s VP of SGA. Morad was a representative to the General Studies Student Council this year, while Palillo was Representative to Engineering Student Council. Chen has been working with this year’s VP of Finance Lara Rosner to ensure a “seamless transition,” Stoffel said.
In her platform, Besnoff promised to be a “tireless promoter” of changes on Barnard’s campus, including revising the Nine Ways of Knowing, changing the housing selection process, working toward universal swipe access, and making course reviews available online to students. She also vowed to “provide opportunities for every student to advise President Spar as we define the future of Barnard.”
Stoffel offered few words of advice to her successor. “More of the same,” she said. “Continue the good work.”
The especially competitive positions on the representative council of representative for diversity and representative for academic affairs were won by Sophie Soares, BC ’09, and Muzna Ansari, BC ’10, respectively.
Since there was a tie for the position of sophomore class vice president, another online vote was held to elect the position, Stoffel said. Lara Avsar, BC ’11, was elected.
Positions that were not filled in the election, including vice president of SGA, will be filled through an application and appointment process conducted by the representative council in the coming weeks.