Courtesy of Hamilton College Student Assembly
Student Assembly Elections for the 2019–2020 academic year took place during the first and second weeks of April. Polls for class presidents began on Thursday, May 2 and ended on Sunday, May 5. The general election for class presidents, representatives, and treasurers, as well as voting on proposed constitutional amendments, began Tuesday, May 7 and lasted until Thursday, May 9.
Students had the option to vote either online or in person. Students accessed online ballots via links in their emails sent out by Student Assembly. HamVotes assisted Student Assembly to provide physical polling around campus. From 12 to 1 PM on May 7 and 9, students could vote in Commons or McEwen, as well as in Commons or Diner on May 8.
So far, the results are in only for class presidents. The Class of 2020 elected Nadav Konforty, the Class of 2021 elected Caroline Paulson, and the Class of 2022 elected Bryce Febres as presidents.
Konforty ran on a platform of leaving a strong legacy for the Class of 2020. His platform read:
“After serving as a 2020 Class Representative and 2018 president of the student body, I’m ready to contribute to our class’ Hamilton legacy for our senior year. I have the fire that you all have to keep bringing the most pressing issues of our Hamilton experience to the forefront, and I have the positive relationships with administrators to ensure that words become actions and that progress becomes solidified policy. Let me serve you as the president of the Class of 2020 and together we will shake up this school one last time.”
Konforty previously served as a class representative from Apr. 2017 through the end of 2017. He was also President of the Student Body and Student Assembly in 2018. This semester, he studied off-campus with Hamilton’s Washington, DC Program.
“My goal is to shake things up for the better,” said Konforty. “I have never one to keep quiet and I don’t intend to do so as I serve the Class of 2020 for the upcoming year. I owe it to my peers to make sure that I contribute to our class’ legacy at Hamilton.”
Paulson emphasized student engagement in her platform, saying:
“Being on Student Assembly thus far has taught me how important it is to have a gateway between students and administration in consideration with some of the major problems students on campus face throughout the year. I truly believe that students have the power to create their own college experience, and I hope to continue to voice my opinions as well as those of my peers by maintaining my position on Student Assembly.”
Further, Paulson said she wants to address issues with campus culture as a class president.
“I want to encourage students to get involved and share their voices as well as continue to publicize SA as a place where students can come to have their concerns or questions heard by the greater public,” she said. “In getting more students engaged in campus life, I hope that we as a community can continue to improve campus culture so that every student is able to achieve the best experience that Hamilton can offer.”
Febres says he wants to facilitate more open communication between himself and the Class of 2022. His platform reads:
“With a year of experience under my belt, I’ve forged strong working relationships with different sectors of administration that allows me to better streamline desired change for the student body. To better connect with my fellow classmates, I am proposing the creation of a weekly Class of 2022 meeting where anyone is free to attend and offer feedback/receive updates. After attending the town hall, I believe this is the best way to stay connected with issues my fellow classmates care about most whilst promoting a culture of transparency and accountability between the students and administration. Let me work for you!”
Febres added: “In short, my platform involved creating new ways to better engage my class on collective issues.” He said he also wants to improve access to hygiene products in different areas of campus. Finally, he is “most excited to meet more of my peers and help be a part of change on campus.”
After voting for their treasurer and representatives, students could also vote for the passing of five proposed amendments to the Student Assembly Constitution. The first amendment was “Making all pronouns in the Student Assembly Constitution gender-inclusive (changing him/her to them).” The second amendment was “Changing official advisor of Student Assembly from Dean of Students to Director of Student Activities.” The third amendment was “Removing requirement of two separate elections for class presidents, treasurers, and representatives.” The fourth amendment was including responsibility for overseeing elections in VP’s official role (it is already their responsibility, just not explicitly stated in their position description). The fifth amendment was “Adding “Student Organization Liaison” as an e-board position.” All amendments contained links to the rationale and exact language of the proposed change.
SA Parliamentarian Alex Kurtz ’21 proposed the amendments to the Assembly at their last meeting of the semester on May 6. The Assembly voted to pass the amendments on to the student body, where a majority vote in approval must be reached in order for the amendments to officially pass.
In contrast, candidates for Assembly positions must receive a plurality vote in order to win.
SA President Amanda Kim ’21 was unable to comment on the General Election results as voting would still be underway at the time of publication, but she shared her excitement with student participation in the elections.
“There’s still much that can be done to improve the elections but I’m very happy with the results of our efforts,” Kim said.
These efforts include not just the aforementioned proposed amendment to move to a single comprehensive ballot, but also specific initiatives that the Assembly has undertaken this semester to increase both voter turnout and election competitiveness.
Kim and SA Vice President Gianni Hill ’21 instituted a nomination process for this election, allowing community members to anonymously nominate students to run for positions. Nominees were not required to run and the elections were open to anyone regardless of whether they were nominated or not. However, nominees were sent personal invitations to run for a position.
“The nominations definitely made an impact,” said Kim. “We’re seeing people running who wouldn’t have even considered it otherwise. Class elections typically get less competitive over time, but the general election for the class of 2022 is even more competitive than it was in the fall. That’s practically unheard of.”
For the elections, SA also partnered with HamVotes, which allowed for physical polling locations to be set up at high-traffic areas across the campus throughout the voting period. This was an entirely new undertaking for the Assembly. Kim believes this has also had a positive impact.
“General election voting is typically open for about three days,” she said. “In the first 12 hours alone we received more votes than last year’s general election had in total. Having physical polling locations is a lot of work but it’s definitely worth it. The link to the online poll often gets buried in inboxes and we see upsettingly low turnout. I’d say our push for more voter turnout this general election has been a success. I’m excited to see how we can continue to build upon this in the future.”
Kim added: “Everyone running is amazing and I’m really happy with how the elections have gone this semester. We still have work to do in order to make these elections as democratic as possible, but for now I think we’ve made a great leap in the right direction. I’m excited to see the final results.”
