Class officers, U-Councilors elected

The USG announced spring election results Wednesday, though two positions for the Class of 2008 will be determined in runoff elections today.

The rising senior class reelected Chris Lloyd '06 as their president. Jim Williamson '07 and Grant Gittlin '08 were elected junior and sophomore class presidents, respectively.

Forty-five percent of the student body — 2,107 students — voted, up from 39 percent last year, according to USG Vice President and Elections Manager Jesse Creed '07.

The victors said they were ecstatic and eager to get to work.

"I was thrilled to find out. I was very happy to be given the opportunity to effect some kind of change here," new U-Councilor Robert Biederman '08 said.

Biederman said he intends to push for late meal policy reform and changes in the precept system.

In a race marked by controversy, students selected Dara Deshe '07 as USG Social Chair.

Freshman class president Grant Gittlin '08 initially endorsed Deshe in a message sent to the Class of 2008 email list on Sunday.

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"I am sure Dara Deshe would do an amazing job, and would like to encourage everyone to please vote for Dara for your own sake," Gittlin wrote in the message, which contained a link to the USG elections website.

Gittlin offered an apology, along with both social chair candidate statements, in an email the following day. He did not, however, retract his endorsement.

"My goal as President is to foster unity, and making a divisive statement in a class-wide email is counter to that goal. Normally, class presidents do not make endorsements through class-wide emails, and that will be my policy in the future. Being that this was my first election as a class President, I crossed the line," Gittlin wrote.

Creed said that while Gittlin's conduct did not violate campaign rules, he hopes to change USG policy to make such actions illegal in the future.

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"I personally am looking into amending the campaign rules in order to preclude all USG email lists from being used as campaign tools in USG elections," he said in an email. "My personal belief is that this is an unethical action that is inherently a conflict of interest."

USG election officials called runoff elections for Class of 2008 Vice President and Social Chair, which will conclude at noon today. Alana Arnold '08 and Katie Lawrence '08 are squaring off for the vice presidency, and Leland Hull '08 and Lisa Kelley '08 are contending for the social chair position.