STUDENT GOVERNMENT GUSA Announces 2002-03 Class Reps By Amanda cGrath Hoya Staff Writer

With a lower turnout than the GUSA executive elections, Georgetown students voted for the GUSA 2002-2003 class representatives yesterday. Election commissioner Meg Kinnard (SFS ’02) announced the results last night in Sellinger Lounge at about 9:15 p.m.

According to the official results, students elected rising seniors Trey Street (SFS ’03), Matt Hopkins (COL ’03), Nicholas “Squid” Quinonez (COL ’03) and Tracey Ellen Hartman (NHS ’03). The class of 2004 elected Big Rob Hutton (SFS ’04), Dan Spector (SFS ’04), Katie Mahjoubi (MSB ’04) and Ed Shelleby (COL ’04). Representatives for the rising sophomore class will be Nazareth Haysbert (COL ’05), Luis Torres (COL ’05), Sean Fern (SFS ’05) and Mike Lanzara (MSB ’05).

According to posted results, 35.4 percent of the student body voted in yesterday’s election, a decrease from the GUSA executive elections in February, in which 45.4 percent of the student body voted. While about 24 percent of students from the rising senior and junior classes voted, more than twice that number – 55.7 percent – participated from the rising sophomore class. The four incumbents in the race, three of which were from the class of 2005, were re-elected to their representative positions.

Haysbert, elected to his second term, attributed the high participation rate of his classmates to the door-to-door methods used extensively by the freshman candidates. “Going door to door, this particular group knew what to say and do,” he said. Haysbert said he felt “incredibly lucky to have everyone’s support,” for a second term.

Torres said the diversity of the ticket drew a larger pool of voters. “We had eight very different candidates,” Torres, who was re-elected, said.”The candidate’s campaigns pulled in students from all the different sectors of the student body.” However, as a veteran of GUSA, Torres said, “The easy part is getting in, the hard part is making a difference.”

The candidates will serve one-year terms as representatives. Several of the elected candidates said they were excited to begin their terms and hope to follow through on their campaign platforms, and to communicate their progress on issues to students.

“We’re going to do a lot of work to try and get outreach,” Fern said. “I think we can work together to implement ways to increase communication about what we do, and to get input from the classes.” Fern said his first priority would be to develop an online discussion board that would enable students to share their ideas with GUSA.

Hopkins said he was surprised by his victory, but was excited to start his term as representative. “I didn’t really put up any signs, I relied a lot on my friends,” he said of his campaign. “I think [GUSA] has a lot of potential and there’s a lot of stuff to be done.”

Lanzara, the only new representative for the class of 2005, was enthusiastic about his future interaction with the re-elected incumbents. “They all have a phenomenal amount of experience, I know they’ll help me along. What I can do is bring in an outsider’s perspective,” he said. Lanzara said his first priority was getting class syllabi online as soon as possible. “It’s important for students to be able to check out a course before they have to register for classes,” he said.