Voters Elect Berg GSSC President, Rain Policy VP

General Studies Student Council VP of Communications Brody Berg was elected president after Wednesday’s elections. With 50 percent of the vote, Berg won by a large enough margin to easily secure the student body presidency.

As announced Friday, Berg garnered 38 percent more votes than runner-up Virdis Bala, while GSSC Inter-Schools Representative Ishmael Osekre took 13 percent. Fifteen percent of the vote went to write-in candidates, of whom current VP of Finance Keith Hightower was the most visible.

“I am extremely humbled and also proud ... that I have the opportunity to pursue the presidency,” Berg said. “I think that the students ... are ready to go, they’re ready for change.”

“Let’s get down to business. Let’s do some work,” Berg said.

In the more closely contested vice president of policy race, voters elected GSSC newcomer Michael Rain into the position with 35 percent of the vote, followed closely by David Minchin with 32 percent of the vote, and Workers Representative Allen Settle with 30 percent of the vote.

In the candidate debates, Rain said his vice presidency would be built on a return to professionalism, and he encouraged GS students not to continue to “shuffle” around the same elected representatives that had been continuously ineffective over the course of the year. Rain said he aimed to reinstate the GSSC as the “‘real’ adult council on campus.”

“We can do more to encourage more students who aren’t on the council to sit in on meetings,” Rain said. “We can try to get more individuals into the room.”

Rounding out the executive board is student life delegate-at-large Richard Adams for vice president of student life, and current finance delegate-at-large Eleanor Colley for vice president of finance. Voters elected Junior Class Vice President Evan Madeo to vice president of communications.

“I think that it’s going to be an exciting year,” Berg said.

But poor voter response for several of the positions left no one elected. In the case of the junior class president and vice president, senior class vice president, and most of the representative positions, not enough voters participated to make the results valid.

alix.pianin@columbiaspectator.com