<n all-campus email sent early Thursday morning the Carleton Student Association Senate announced that after receiving 565 votes, Jinai Bharucha will be the next CSA President. David Heifetz ‘11, the other balloted candidate, received 446 votes. Bharucha’s 119-vote victory was the largest in recent memory. In the last contested CSA Presidential election in 2008, Caitlin Fleming ’09 won by a mere six votes.
“I approached my campaign with the mindset that it would be as competitive as the last contested presidential campaign,” Bharucha said. “When I saw the margin of victory, I was genuinely surprised.”
Bharucha said that in the next year she wants to transform CSA into a venue where students genuinely feel they can come together to discuss their concerns and ideas. A primary initiative for her term as President is to create a series of bi-weekly forums, co-hosted with various campus offices, in order to give all students an informal setting to voice their opinions and have them be heard.
In the race for Vice President, Isaac Hodes defeated Moshe Lavi, with 460 to 396 votes. Sarah Duane won re-election as CSA Treasurer, receiving 558 votes to Charlie Liu’s 429.
Over the course of the four-day voting period, 1,179 students cast their ballots, continuing last year’s trend of increased voter turnout. Last year saw 1,037 voters, which marked the highest turnout in four years, according to the CSA.
“I feel as if Carleton students were significantly more engaged in the elections because the new class representative structure gives each student a vested interest in who they elect,” Bharucha said. Earlier this term CSA Senate voted to establish a set number of representatives for each class. This election was the first in recent history where students could only vote for students in their class year.
The students elected as Class Representatives are: Freshmen: Arnav Durani and Marc Boyce; Sophomore : Christa Owens and Justin Moor; Junior : Sana Rafiq and Ned Heckman.