Sophomore Hutchinson Williams won the FUSA presidential election in a landslide victory on Tuesday night. His is a victory on several levels; not only is he only the second rising junior in recent memory to earn the presidential post, but this year’s election had the second-highest voter turnout since 1998. That’s good news for Williams, whose main platform was to increase student unity. While such lofty, nebulous goals are usually scoffed at, Williams has already begun to quiet the naysayers with one of the better electoral turnouts in recent years.
Still, Williams finds himself in a precarious position. As president-elect and a rising junior, he may face the skepticism of next year’s senior class, which, for the first time in FUSA history, is not represented in either of the organizations two highest-ranking positions. Williams faces the additional burden of potentially bearing the FUSA presidency, an enormous responsibility, for two consecutive years. That is, of course, if he can hold the interest of the student body for that long; Kevin Neubauer ’05, who lost his re-election campaign, is proof that this is no easy task.
This is not to say we are not confident in Williams. Indeed, we felt he was the best candidate for the position. However, he would be totally remiss not to appoint presidential candidate Ryan Neubauer ’07 and vice-presidential candidate Ashley Toombs ’07 to his cabinet. Their experience in FUSA and commitment to this university will be crucial to the success of Williams’ platform and the development of new senior traditions – undoubtedly one of the biggest challenges he will face during his term.
Williams won with a mandate by virtue of his commanding lead over his opponent. However, irregularities arose on election day that would certainly have cast out a closer race’s results in favor of a recall. It was a mistake for the Election Commission to require a StagCard to vote – this practice is discriminatory against juniors and seniors who have less of an impetus for carrying the card. In the future, all election code must be written in the interest of including the maximum number of voters rather than excluding individuals based on petty technicalities. Perhaps president-elect Williams can put this easy goal at the top of his agenda when he begins his term in April.
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