‘All Slate’ wins Freshman Class Council elections

The slate whose slogan and rubber campaign bracelets read, “All Slate: You’re in good hands,” took this year’s unusually competitive Freshman Class Council elections.

27 students, more than have been seen in at least the last four Freshman Class Council elections, competed over the past week through chalked sidewalks, giveaways and a debate in Tisch Commons to represent their class and program on a budget of $2,000 plus fundraising.

A record number of freshmen (757) voted in the election, though due to enrollment differences, the percentage was slightly decreased.

“For Freshman Class Council, I think that’s a good number, considering that a lot of freshmen haven’t really been exposed to SU that much, so I’m hoping to get more percentage in the future,” election commissioner and sophomore Michelle Winner said. “We’re starting different marketing campaigns for voting, so we’ll see how that turns out.”

Freshman Class Council president, Arjun Grama, received 252 of the votes for president, representing 34 percent. The second place slate was Empire Slate, which received 178 votes.

While the Freshmen Class Council debates featured competitors proposing hopes to begin serving strawberry milk on campus, shorten Bear’s Den lines and keep the tennis courts lit up later, Grama’s goals are a bit more intangible.

Grama said he hopes to draw the freshman class into closer community.

“We’re looking forward to helping the class bond as a whole. I know that sounds really vague, but I guess what we’re trying to do is make sure that Wash. U. feels like a home, not just a place that they spend nine months of the year…We want people to love this college even more than we already do,” he said.

His slate’s programming ideas include an interclass competition to foster more interaction with upperclassmen, community service projects, dances and whatever else students want.

“It’s no so much of what we [the slate] want; it’s what the students [other freshmen] tell us what they want. Although we do have these ideas, they’re just that—ideas. We’re not going to form anything until we get confirmation that this is something that they’re interested in.”

Grama attributed the win to the slate’s campaign bracelets and their enthusiasm.

“All of the other slates were very qualified. I can’t just way it was an easy race because that’s just not the case, and it was anybody’s game. We went out and talked to people and made it clear we were interested in doing what they wanted rather than just following our own goals. We made it very clear that we were there to serve them. I think that people really understood that we didn’t want to be a student government that they heard about but never really spoke to. We want to be a student government where they can tell us ‘Do these things,’ and we would do it for them,” Grama said.