With Turnout Low, Sundquist-Sarafa Wins UC Election

Matthew L. Sundquist ’09 and Randall S. Sarafa ’09 will be taking the reins of the Undergraduate Council in the coming year, winning a race that featured the lowest voter turnout since the council began popularly electing its top officials in 1996.

The total number of ballots cast dipped nearly 40 percent from last year to 2,181, with the winning ticket garnering 66 percent of the first-place votes. The low voter turnout may have been due in part to the established reputations of Sundquist, currently the council’s vice president, and Sarafa, its Finance Committee chair. The two were considered the overwhelming favorites throughout the campaign.

The drop was particularly noteworthy since the Election Commission extended the voting window by 24 hours—lasting from Monday at noon to midday Friday.

Sundquist’s campaign manager, Maryellen ‘Mel’ C. McGowan ’09, said Thursday that she was aware of the low voting figures, and that she believed the apathy at the polls could benefit the presidential candidates from outside the UC.

But Friday’s results marked the continuation of a trend in council elections that has not been kind to inexperienced candidates, as presidential hopefuls Roy T. Willey IV ’09, who came in second with 500 first-place votes, and Frances I. Martel ’09 both failed in their bids to become the first student to win a top post on the UC without any prior council experience.

Sundquist himself appeared unfazed by the low turnout for the election, saying yesterday that he did not believe it affected the mandate of his administration.

“I think that although it wasn’t the largest turnout, we were able to have a large percentage of the people who did vote,” he said, “and I think that’s really encouraging for our year.”

A RECORD OF SERVICE

Experience was a consistent campaign pitch for the Sundquist-Sarafa ticket, which won the overwhelming majority of the student group endorsements—including those of the Harvard College Democrats and the Black Students Association—while touting their track record of working with the College administration.

Both Sundquist and Sarafa have served on the UC for three years and collaborated as freshmen on a successful effort to secure universal swipe card access.

The winning ticket has also repeatedly emphasized the feasibility of their platform throughout the course of campaigning.

In the run-up to the election, Sundquist met with key administrators, including Interim Dean of the College David R. Pilbeam, to make sure that the agenda he would pursue as president would be actionable.

The central plank of the Sundquist-Sarafa platform was a push to reform the College’s Administrative Board, the disciplinary body that has been criticized for its opacity and failure to include any students as decision-makers.

During the campaign, Sundquist suggested that his opponents’ promises—such as Willey’s pledge to reinstate the council’s alcohol reimbursements for parties, which were nixed by Pilbeam earlier this fall—reflected a lack of knowledge of the administration.

“It’s really easy, outside the framework of knowing anything about the administration, to complain about it, and to think that you can just march in there and change things,” Sundquist said earlier.

Sundquist said yesterday that he and Sarafa would be devoting the coming week to meeting with administrators, faculty, and fellow UC representatives to discuss the coming year.

But, with the election just ended, the president-elect and his second-in-command have already had an opportunity to make good on a campaign promise—taking to the snow-sprinkled banks of the Charles River to join the members of the Alaska Klub for an 8 a.m. plunge on Saturday.

On a morning where the real-feel temperature was 22 degrees, according to the Weather Channel, the newly elected leaders of the College’s student government proved their mettle, said Alaska Klub Co-President Robert J. Gage ’10.

“I think the student body president should be able to jump into an icy river,” Gage said. “And I might add they did it without any hesitation either. There was no whining. They came right down, and they did it.”

—Staff writer Christian B. Flow can be reached at cflow@fas.harvard.edu.