Caldarone wins SGA presidency
By Mark McCarrell
News Editor

    Antonio Caldarone, a sophomore political science major, won the presidency of Student Government Association in a landslide—but he did run unopposed

     Voter turnout was very low for this year’s election, with Caldarone amassing only 378 votes. The closest write-in candidate had five votes.

     At any rate, Caldarone has high hopes for his tenure as SGA president.

     “My main focus will be academics. I really don’t think academics are being looked at,” Caldarone said. “With the increasing enrollment, I want to make sure we hire enough full-time teachers to keep the student-to-teacher ratio low.”

     Caldarone, along with Vice President Frank DeVincentis, wants to create an Academic Advising Center.

     “We do want to make sure admissions policies are not decreasing, just letting anyone in, so we maintain our reputation for academic excellence,” Caldarone said.

     Voters elected a senator for each campus: Lincoln Park campus senator Sanjay Gidwani; Loop campus senator Jason Wagner and suburban campus senator Sarah Sypniewski.

     Each school of the university also elected a senator: College of Commerce senator Todd Edwards; School of Computer Science, Telecommunications and Information Systems senator Roland M. Gadrinab; School for New Learning senator Shay Stewart-Bouley and Music School senator Kenneth Chin.

     Senators were also elected for State and Federal Relations, University Values, Multicultural Student Affairs, International Students and for the Student Activity Board.

     Senators for the School of Liberal Arts and Sciences, School of Education and Theatre School were not approved since no candidates were on the ballot and the write-in candidates did not receive the minimum 50 votes required. 

     The 50-vote minimum was decided on by the Election Operations Board to make sure joke candidates such as Mickey Mouse or Homer Simpson did not win the election.

     Because of this rule and other complications in the voting process, the results of the election may be protested by members of the Activist Student Union, who had three members accumulate the most write-in votes for senator positions, but did not meet the minimum vote requirement.

     Richard Streetman, one of the self-titled “ASU Three,” is protesting the results for many reasons.

     “I got the most votes; in America that means you win,” Streetman said. “In SGA, it only means you win if you’re the candidate they want to win.”

     Streetman also said that he and other ASU members were not informed of the 50-vote requirement.

     Other problems with the election include students not being listed in the right school when voting and error messages appearing when students tried to submit their ballots online. Because of the technical problems, the EOB extended the election a full day to be fair to all candidates.

     EOB Chairman Adam Suchar said that if an official protest is filed, a special hearing will be held Sunday and the protesters would present their case to the SGA senate. Current SGA President Darcie Burns will preside over the hearing. In her absence Vice President Lisa Lewicki will preside.

     If the senate rules that the results stand and another election is not warranted, Caldarone will appoint the vacant seats in the fall.