On Monday, February 15th, CSA President Marielle Foster ’16 announced the results of the 2016 CSA election, after polls had closed Sunday evening. According to Foster, “it was an unprecedented turnout in recent memory,” with 1261 total voters, over 60% of the student body.

Tiffany Thet ’17 won the position of President, Abha Laddha ’17 captured the seat of Vice President, while Jeremy Keane ’17 was uncontested for Treasurer. The race for CSA President was more competitive than past elections, with a small number of votes separating the candidates.

“At first I didn’t believe it,” said Thet upon hearing the results of the election. “And for a split second I thought it was another Tiffany on campus. Then the elation set in,” she said.

Laddha “was very happy” when she saw the results. “I’ve definitely been thinking about this since I was a sophomore, and it’s been on my mind for a while, so seeing such a dream realized is very exciting and amazing. I’m really hoping to leave my term next year as having created substantial improvements.”

She acknowledged that there is often “a lot of frustration” about lack of change within the CSA, but she said that “I really want to urge people to not lose hope. We want to hear everything, and we want to talk to you.”

Similar to past CSA elections, the freshman class saw the most number of candidates vying for the position of Class of 2019 Representative. Five students campaigned for the seat, but Clara Buck and Riley Irish emerged as the victors. Buck received the largest percentage of the vote, while Irish won the second position for Class of 2019 Representative by a more narrow margin.

In conjunction with the elections, the referendum about the implementation of a bike share program, which would cost $7,310, was passed with an overwhelming majority.