Jackson '15 to run unopposed for reelection as USG president

Current USG president Shawon Jackson ’15 is running for reelection unopposed, chief elections manager Rachel Nam ’15 announcedWednesdayin an email sent to the undergraduate student body by Jackson.

“I’ve really enjoyed being USG president this past year, and I’m excited to serve in the position again,” Jackson said. “I look forward to talking to students during campaign week to hear what their ideas are and what their concerns are so that I can address them in the coming year.”

According to Nam, current Class of 2015 senator Zachary Ogle ’15 had expressed an interest in running for president as well, but only submitted two of the three components necessary to be eligible to run by the strict5 p.m. deadline on Tuesday.

“That [deadline] has been made clear at the USG open house, it’s clear in the elections handbook, and it has been clear in all of the elections emails that Shawon has sent on my behalf,” Nam said. “This is obviously a very, very difficult decision, and it wasn’t made on the spot. I considered what Zach had to say definitely and I discussed it with the elections managers as well before making the decision.”

Ogle explained that he "made a mistake" in not submitting an internal Google Document component of the application.

"I overlooked this smaller document," he said."Obviously I'm disappointed by the election manager's decision. Running in this race would mean a lot to me and I'd like to serve the student body, so I'm looking into going to the Senate to see about being reinstated as a candidate."

In total, 29 students are running for elected offices. Five of the candidates are running unopposed.

Molly Stoneman, currently the executive secretary and member of the 2016 Class Council, is running unopposed for USG vice president. Regina Cai ’15 will be the treasurer, current Class of 2016 senator Ella Cheng will be the Undergraduate Student Life Committee chair and current Class of 2015 senator Mariana Bagneris will be reelected in that position.

Cheng is also a staff writer for The Daily Princetonian.

There are two senators for each class, but Bagneris is the only student running to represent the Class of 2015 in the Senate. There will thus be an appointment process after elections are over to appoint a second Class of 2015 senator, Jackson said.

Unlike previous years, however, a majority of the committee chair positions are contested.

“I was very pleased to see that we had a lot of interest for our committee chair positions,” Jackson said. “I was also pleased to see that freshmen were willing to run for committee chair positions, which is something we haven’t seen a lot in the past.”

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Nam added that a number of the candidates running for chair positions have not previously been involved with the USG, which she was happy about.

James Baase ’15 and Richard Peay ’17 are running for academics committee chair.

U-Councilor Paul Riley ’15, Julie Chong ’17, Campus and Community Affairs Committee member Raina Sun ’16 and Jason Cai ’17 are running for Campus and Community Affairs chair.

Current Class of 2016 senator Eduardo Lima and current social committee member Logan Roth ’15 are running for social committee chair.

“What I would encourage students to look for is someone with a clear vision for the committee,” Jackson said. “Specifically they should look for projects that the chairperson is looking to implement in the coming year. The second thing that I think people should look for is great leadership skills.”

The Class of 2016 senator candidates are Michael Cho, George Jian, Yoni Benyamini and Macy Manning. The Class of 2017 senator candidates are Michael Zhou, Kathy Chow, Nick Horvath, Brian Lee, Colleen O’Gorman, Dan Mozley, Chris Shin, Rene Chalom, Kishan Bhatt, Marni Morse, Ryan Miller and Aleksandra Czulak.

Morse is also a contributing columnist for The Daily Princetonian.

“It’s really great to see freshmen enthusiastic to be involved on the team on campus,” Nam said.

Candidates began campaigningWednesday at noonand will continue throughNov. 25, when voting begins atnoon. If there is no run-off election, the winners will be announced onNov. 29.