In a meeting on Sunday, the Georgetown University Student Association Senate confirmed the results of special elections held to fill vacant senate seats.

Shaalin Parekh (MSB ’12) won the Copley Hall seat, Nolan Johnson (COL ’11) won the seat for Village A sections E to H, Matthew Ginsberg (COL ’11) won the townhouses seat and Clara Gustafson (SFS ’13) won the seat for Harbin Hall floors six to nine.

The GUSA senate elections in early October [left the four seats unfilled because of a lack of candidates](https://www.thehoya.com/news/three-gusa-senate-seats-remain-vacant-following-election/).

In the special elections, at least three students ran in each district, with nine candidates running from Harbin floors six to nine. In the final round of voting, Gustafson won by only one vote through the instant runoff voting system.

The GUSA election commissioners, Adam Giansiracusa (SFS ’12), Ryan Gavigan (COL ’11) and Heather Gartin (MSB ’11) reported no problems with the elections. Although the ballot was sent three times due to a technology problem, the commissioners reported that the error had no effect on the results.

GUSA President Calen Angert (MSB ’11) swore in the new senators after the senate voted to certify the results.

The senate also passed a resolution condemning [last Tuesday’s alleged bias-related assault](https://www.thehoya.com/news/student-allegedly-assaulted-bias-incident-tuesday/). The resolution also thanked GU Pride for its response to the incident and urged students to make use of the university’s bias reporting system.

About halfway through the meeting, many senators received the Public Safety Alert e-mail from the Department of Public Safety that informed the Georgetown community of [a second bias-related assault that was reported on Sunday morning](https://www.thehoya.com/news/student-assaulted-second-bias-related-incident-week/).

Senator Nick Troiano (COL ’11) questioned the appropriateness of the resolution, citing concerns that it might set a precedent for the senate to pass resolutions after anything happens on campus.

“I think this one is special [because] of the response . including the GU Pride protest on Friday and the coverage by The Washington Post,” said Speaker Adam Talbot (COL ’12), who sponsored the bill. “Clearly it is heavily on people’s minds on campus.”

“This is something that is an issue and a good place to start is to make people aware of how to deal with it,” he said.

All senators present voted in favor of the resolution.

The senate ended the meeting by approving a new senate rule requiring the senate secretary to post bills and resolutions on the www.box.net/gusasenate Web site 48 hours before the weekly Sunday senate meetings.

Senator Colton Malkerson (COL ’13), who introduced the rule, said this would allow members of the senate and the public to review legislation before it is debated and voted on at the senate meetings, and would further increase transparency.

At next week’s meeting, Senator Eric Cusimano (SFS ’10) and Senator Arman Ismail (COL ’11) will present a bill requesting funding for an informational campaign to encourage students to clean up their trash and produce less waste in an effort to fight the presence of rats on campus.

Troiano also said the Finance and Appropriations Committee is working on a survey to distribute to student clubs to determine how they are spending their money and how they feel about the funding process. “