17 Class Marshal Finalists Emerge from First Round of Voting

The Class of 2014 cast roughly 1,000 votes to choose their senior class marshal finalists, but it was a last-minute vote that created a tie among two of the candidates and resulted in the selection of 17 finalists, rather than the usual 16. The finalists, eight of whom will ultimately represent their class this year and beyond as marshals, were announced Thursday morning.

This year’s finalists are Yolanda K. Borquaye, Gashaw Clark, Christopher H. Cleveland, Peter G. Cornick, Erin D. Drake, Ginny C. Fahs, Harleen K. Gambhir, Grant M. Jones, Sandesh K. Kataria, Sharon K. Kelleher, Pascal Mensah, Gorick K.H. Ng, Anthony A. Palillo, David F. Sackstein, Akshay M. Sharma, Roland Yang, and Jen Q.Y. Zhu. They will vie for the eight class marshal spots in a final round of voting Thursday.

The number of votes cast in this year’s first voting round stayed roughly constant from last year but increased relative to previous years, according to Clint Ficula, the Harvard Alumni Association’s assistant director for undergraduate engagement, who also provided The Crimson with data on this year’s vote.

After several days of enthusiastic campaigning, 69 first-round candidates faced voters beginning Tuesday morning. After voting closed Wednesday morning, the 17 finalists were notified that they had advanced to the next round later in the day.

Speaking in phone interviews Wednesday evening, several finalists offered insights from the class marshal campaign trail.

Ng, a finalist from Lowell House, said he ran his campaign using Facebook, text messages, and face-to-face conversations.

“I’m really fortunate to have had the experience of reaching out to friends from all corners of the University,” he said.

Jones, who hails from Winthrop House, said he tried not to overwhelm his classmates with campaigning in the first round of voting.

“A lot of seniors feel very overwhelmed with the amount of campaigning that has been going on in the first round,” Jones said. “I try to play it a little more casually and to let people know I am running but not saturate them too much.”

With the stakes raised in the final round, however, he said he may be a bit more “aggressive” in his campaigning this time around.

Gambhir, a finalist from Leverett House, said there is “something very awkward” in the concept of students voting amongst their peers in a class marshal election.

“The process is kind of silly but the end result is really important,” she said.

—Staff writer Alyza J. Sebenius can be reached at alyza.sebenius@thecrimson.com. Follow her on Twitter @asebenius.