Voting in the final UGBC elections for the 2013-14 school year closed at midnight on Friday, Apr. 5. Matt Nacier and Matt Alonsozana, both A&S ’14, were elected UGBC President and Executive Vice President, respectively. Of the 9,110 Boston College undergraduates, 3,116 voted in the final elections, which began on Apr. 4. Fifty-eight percent of the votes were cast for the Nacier-Alonsozana team, with the remaining 42 percent voting for the team of Tim Koch, A&S ’14, and Chris “Trugs” Truglio, CSOM ’14.
In the final days before the election, the use of social media became problematic for the presidential and vice presidential campaigns. “Each team was sanctioned in the last 24 hours of campaigning for violations involving Facebook posts,” said Carter Bielen, co-chair of the UGBC Elections Committee and A&S ’13, in an email. “Each team was required to refrain from active campaigning for a certain amount of time Friday, and each complied fully with the EC’s requests. We want to thank both candidate teams and their staffs for the work they put in throughout the process and for their commitment to Boston College.”
Also on the ballot were candidates for the Student Assembly and a referendum on whether or not students support a switch from BC’s current alcohol policy to a points system. The referendum passed with 83 percent approval from voting students.
For the Student Assembly, the Class of 2014 elected four senators: Molly McCarthy, A&S ’14; Ricky Knapp, A&S ’14; Griff Stark-Ennis, A&S ’14; and Helen Yu, CSOM ’14. One vacant seat remains.
The Class of 2015 elected Chris Marchese, Michael Rosella, Tony Freiji, and Bryan White, all A&S ’15, to the Student Assembly, with one vacant seat remaining as well.
From the Class of 2016, Matt Hugo, Emma West, Chris Park, Fabiola De Armas, and Alison Takahashi, all A&S ’16, were elected to the Student Assembly.
No Senator from the College of Arts and Sciences was elected, and the seat remains vacant. Joseph Mignoli, CSOM ’14, will serve as the Carroll School of Management representative in the Student Assembly; Brooke Hopkins, CSON ’14, will be the Connell School of Nursing representative; and the seat for the Lynch School of Education (LSOE) also remains empty.
Non-contested Senators have been automatically seated by the Elections Committee, which is looking to have the by-election for vacant seats in the fall semester, according to Alonsozana. He intends to hold that special election as soon as possible, however.
“As president of the Assembly, that’s going to be my main advocacy point over the next week,” Alonsozana said. “SPO needs to have these elections held quickly, particularly on the RSO side-the class election side can be held in October or September … we don’t even have the quorum needed to approve the vice presidents yet. If attention can be brought to that matter as quickly as possible, we can get to work on actually getting our job done.”
The remaining seats for the classes of 2014 and 2015 are open to the general student population, and seats for A&S, CSON, the Student Athlete Council, the AHANA Leadership Council, the GLBTQ Leadership Council, and all 20 Registered Student Organization seats still need to be filled.
Nacier and Alonsozana will be inaugurated on Apr. 30, and will spend the rest of their semester working to meet with University administrators, including members of the Student Programs Office, and choose the members of their Cabinet. “The selection process we’re not taking lightly at all,” Nacier said. “I think it’s important that, because these positions are paid, they’re coming from the student’s pockets, the student activity fee-it’s only appropriate that there’s strong diligence done in selecting these positions.”
“The main plans are to ensure that we have the right people working for us in the new structure,” Alonsozana said. “I think the next three weeks are critical, as we decide on the vice presidents for the different divisions, and in particular, for policy reform, the chairman of the different standing committees in the Senate.”
The other team expressed their hope that Nacier and Alonsozana pay attention to the needs of BC students during their term. “We think it is important for next year’s administration to hold every member of UGBC accountable for real, meaningful change … in addition to being a more representative organization that is cognizant of the entire BC undergraduate community’s needs,” the Koch-Truglio team said in a statement via email. “While election season can certainly be an exciting time, UGBC exists to act as the unified student voice for Boston College undergraduates, and we are optimistic that next year’s leaders will be mindful of this throughout the year. We welcome the opportunity to work with Matt and Matt to incorporate our ideas into next year’s UGBC for the sake of enhancing the student body’s experience, and we are excited to see how the new UGBC structure will help unify our student body.”
Nacier emphasized his and Alonsozana’s respect for Koch and Truglio, and their intention to work for BC’s best interests. “Matt and I have the utmost respect for the other candidates,” Nacier said. “They were working to give their vision for BC. And if you’re in this campaign process-no matter what anybody says, you can never take away the fact that we all love BC, and you’re doing it because you love BC and you want to make it a better place. We just wanted to do it differently.”
