On Tuesday, March 12 at 7 p.m. The Levee came to life with Fairfield University Student Association Senate hopefuls and their supporters as they awaited the results of the 2019 Senate Elections.

 

The stakes were the highest for the Class of 2022, which was the only class that had more than five candidates that were running for the class’s five senate seats. “I’m here because I take an active stance in student politics including contraceptives on campus, inclusivity and the environment,” said Fiona Tynon ‘22. “By ‘inclusivity’ I mean that I want more events with all grades as the target audience, and I want freshmen to be encouraged to take classes and socialize with students from other classes.”

 

After the room spent almost a half hour spent anticipating and eating free pizza, FUSA Chief Justice and President-elect Claire Monahan ‘20 stepped up to announce the winners. The future senators from the Class of 2020 are: Luke D’Agostino with 89 votes, Justin Mercado with 77 votes, Brian Gozzo with 77 votes, Bradd Cyr with 62 votes, and pending write-in candidate Teresa Sauer with 34 votes. According to FUSA, there were 155 votes in total, and nine were counted as invalid due to mismatched ID and name.

 

As for Class of 2021, the winners are Sean Crosby with 96 votes, Angelica Miceli-Kaya with 92 votes, Alexia O’Brien with 83 votes, Ali Haidar with 80 votes, and Colin Townsend with 54 votes. There were 161 votes in total, and two were counted as invalid due to mismatched ID and name.

Haidar said he was, “Glad to be back in the senate, and excited to work with the new individuals in the senate in order to grow on what we’ve built this year.”

 

“I know this is what people are here for,” Monahan said before reading off the Class of 2022’s future senate members. They include Nwachukwu Ibekwe with 169 votes, Vincent Gadioma with 154 votes, Casey McCombs with 138 votes, Jack Stalzer with 134 votes, and Tyler Heffern with 134 votes. There were 391 votes in total, and seven were counted as invalid due to mismatched ID and name. Heffern and Stalzer are incumbents. Sarah Bowden, Amelia Kedik and Alexander Vulcano, are current senators who ran but did not get re-elected.

 

“I’m here to listen to the complaints of my class and change things,” said Ibekwe, who received the highest number of votes out of all the candidates.

 

“I hope our campus can become closer,” said McCombs when asked what she would do with her upcoming term. “I want more community involvement.”

 

Voter turnout has improved this year. This was the first time that the FUSA Senate ballot was open for three days, as opposed to in the past when it has been open only for one day. In the spring of 2018, 119 people voted in the Class of 2020 and 183 in the Class of 2021. In the fall of 2018, 246 first-years voted.

 

Though the start of the next term is to be determined, the new FUSA Senate will convene at least once before the end of the semester. The next General Senate Meeting will be held March 13 at 6:30 pm in the Lower Level of the John A. Barone Campus Center.

 

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