The Student Union held its first round of elections on Sept. 10 for several Senate seats, as well as for representatives to the Brandeis Sustainability Fund and the Brandeis Undergraduate Curriculum Committee.

While almost all of the positions were filled in this round of elections, five seats remain vacant. With the exception of the Senator to Massell Quad, these vacancies are due to no students choosing to run for the open positions.

Voter turnout was correlated to class year: the class of 2019 voted the most, casting 258 total ballots. The class of 2018 cast 201 ballots, the class of 2017 cast 185 and the class of 2016 cast 184. In an email to the Justice, Student Union President Nyah Macklin ’16 ascribed the poor voter turnout to students traveling for Rosh Hashanah on the same day as the election. “Any sooner, and students would not have had enough time to get settled, and then campaign, and any later and we run the risk of delaying the progress of the Union. For the next election, we can work around this issue,” Macklin wrote.

New to the Senate are the Senators to the Class of 2019, Kate Kesselman ’19 and Nathan Greess ’19. Kesselman took 31 percent of the vote with 78 ballots cast in her name while Greess took 27 percent with 68 ballots, according to a list of statistics Macklin emailed to the Justice. Greess and Kesselman won through a crowded field of eight total candidates, not counting the “Abstain” option and write-in candidates. In an email to the Justice, Kesselman wrote that she hopes to institute a Secret Snowflake event for the first-year class — in which students give each other gifts without revealing who they are — as well as a first-year Capture the Flag event.

Hannah Brown ’19 will serve as Senator to North Quad, earning 64 votes in her name, or 41 percent of the electorate. In an email to the Justice, Brown wrote that she plans to pursue higher standards of cleanliness for North, as well as improve sustainability, host activities and entertainment events and achieve better access to campus resources. Brown added that she plans to serve on the facilities committee but will leave the choice of her second committee to her constituents.

The position of Senator to Massell Quad remains vacant. This is despite two students, Kendrick Rubino ’19 and Gianna Petrillo ’19, each running for the position. Statistics sent to the Justice indicate that neither Rubino nor Petrillo received a single vote, as no votes were cast at all in the Massell Quad Senate race. In an email to the Justice, Student Union Secretary Shuying Liu said she had not received any complaints from Massell Quad after the election, leading her to believe that there were no technical errors. Neither Rubino nor Petrillo responded to requests for comment by press time.

Max Whitmore ’18, the newly elected Senator to Castle Quad, told the Justice in an email that he hopes to increase funds for the Castle through small and efficient changes in funding allocations. Though he did not run for the Representative position, Whitmore wrote that he hopes to work closely with the Undergraduate Curriculum Committee. He received 22 votes and 79 percent of the electorate.

Abhishek Kulkarni ’18 will serve as Senator to Village Quad. In an email to the Justice, Kulkarni wrote that due to the diverse range of students who live in the Village, including sophomores, juniors and eventual midyears, he plans “simply to make sure everyone has a chance to express their concerns toward any decision I make as senator, so that my voice and vote truly represent my constituency.” Kulkarni ran unopposed, receiving 40 votes and 71 percent of the electorate.

Returning to the Union as Senator to Ridgewood Quad is Mitchell Beers ’17, who served previously as Senator to East Quad last year. Beers earned 91 percent of the electorate with 49 votes cast in his name. Newcomers Karina Patino Mazmanian ’16 and Sam Krystal ’17 will serve as Senators to Ziv Quad and the Off Campus Community respectively. Krystal took 51 votes for 45 percent of the electorate, while Mazmanian earned 38 votes and 62 percent of the electorate.

Qifu Yin ’18 will serve as a new Representative to the Brandeis Sustainability Fund, a part of the Student Union that provides advice and financial support to student projects focused on sustainability, according to the fund’s Facebook page. Yin did not respond to a request for comment by press time. No students were nominated to be Representatives to the Brandeis Undergraduate Curriculum Committee. This position can only be held by current Student Union members; two representatives are elected by the Union’s members, and a third is appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate, according to the Student Union Constitution. The Undergraduate Curriculum Committee “reviews the educational and curricular activities of departments, programs and other academic units contributing to the educational mission of the university, as well as academic rules and regulations, and makes recommendations for action,” according to the University’s website.

This year, for the first time, Senators were prohibited from using paper fliers and posters to promote their campaigns. Kesselman, who did not have a Facebook account prior to her campaign, wrote that despite her inexperience, she felt the new policy “was a good idea because it is better for the environment and does not overwhelm people as much, but I found social media a difficult medium in which to express my ideas because I was not familiar with it. … The majority of people know how to use Facebook and do so very well.”

Other Senators agreed: Kulkarni wrote that he “was actually in a van on my way to Baltimore when the clock struck 12 and candidates could begin campaigning; since I wasn't on campus, fliers would have been out of the question, at least initially, placing me at an unfair disadvantage against a competitor on campus. … I feel [the no-fliers policy] levels the playing field for other candidates in similar circumstances.”

Whitmore had planned on running a paperless campaign before the policy was announced, and Brown, though stating that the ban “presented a new challenge” compared to past campaigns, stated that she enjoyed being forced to use Photoshop and online videos to promote her campaign.

In an Aug. 31 email to the Justice, Macklin described Senators as representatives and advocates for their respective classes and quads, and said that Senators “will also work with the Director of Programming in the Executive Board to create purposeful programming for their constituencies.”

The first full Senate meeting of the year was held on Thursday in the Student Union offices in the Shapiro Campus Center, and the Senate retreat began on Friday, according to an email from Macklin.

The second round of elections will be held on Oct. 2.