The Student Government election results that were compiled after voting days on April 24 and 25 have been made official through ratification by the Election Board, Student Senate, and the Graduate Student Assembly. (See, Student Government Elections Begin Today.)

HSS junior Karl Sjogren and BHA junior Andrea Hamilton have been elected as Student Body President and Vice President, and MCS junior Kirk Higgins has been elected to the position of Student Body Vice President for Finance. All three obtained over 50 percent of the vote. An entire list of elected senators can be found at the elections website.

In total, 1,313 Student Activities Fee-paying members of the Carnegie Mellon community voted in this past election. Out of approximately 9,600 undergraduate and graduate students, the voting population was at a mere 13.7 percent. With elections beginning the day after the end of Spring Carnival, it was difficult for Senate and candidates to effectively advertise the elections.

"I'm a little disappointed that there was low voter turnout," said Higgins. "I understand that it was due to Student Senate not planning out and advertising the elections very well."

Hamilton and Sjogren agreed with this sentiment; one of the major points of how they hope to change the Carnegie Mellon community is to increase communication, and thereby involvement, on campus.

"Our central, most fundamental goals are… visibility and accountability," said Sjogren.

Sjogren and Hamilton want to increase communication between students, faculty and staff, and student organizations to better improve campus pride and involvement. They hope that by basic changes, such as link exchanges on related organizations' websites and e-mail distribution lists that reach a broad range of students, communication and involvement will increase.

"This is a very basic thing," said Hamilton, "but it's important because without [communication], it's just talking."

Higgins also believes that organizations communicating and working together could improve the campus, in particular from a financial standpoint. He hopes to expand this even to developing relationships off-campus.

"I think the Joint Funding Committee should work more closely with student organizations on an individual basis to develop mutual working relationships with potential off-campus sponsors," Higgins said. "I think these initiatives would help reduce burden on the Student Activities Fee and allow for a larger variety of events to get funding."

Sjogren, Hamilton, and Higgins are all supportive of the Committee on Student Organizations, which began under Student Activities in the fall of 2005. COSO is meant to bring more official planning and responsibility to student organizations. They hope to build permanent features of COSO so that the committee can continue to thrive after they graduate. In particular, Higgins plans to create a database of student organizations which includes up-to-date information about leaders, operating bylaws, meeting times, events, and more.

In the same vein, Sjogren and Hamilton hope to work on improving and solidifying the Student Advisory Councils. Although some SACs are extremely functional, meeting regularly to discuss departmental issues and occasionally organizing social events, they feel that many do not do justice to the SAC program.

"If every SAC were like BioSAC, we wouldn't have this in our platform," said Sjogren.

They feel that many SACs do not live up to their duty or potential to serve as forums for students to discuss their departmental academic and administration questions and concerns. Since every SAC represents a different department, Sjogren and Hamilton aren't suggesting all SACs behave in the same manner. However, they do want every SAC to in some effective capacity serve its intended purpose.

In addition to more communication, Sjogren and Hamilton hope that Student Government and the Carnegie Mellon administration will take more noticeable responsibility for changes on campus. When there are changes on campus, they plan to make the campus community aware of who made the changes happen. Then, community members know to whom they owe thanks or complaints.

One recent example of a change on campus that was not received positively was the decision to install the sculpture "Walking to the Sky." (See, Walking to the Sky and Mao Yisheng to be Installed.)

"Having art on campus is great," said Hamilton. However, she said, having art that community members don't and won't appreciate is "not so great."

Hamilton believes that the backlash against campus art is another symptom of poor campus communication. As she understands the problems that many students have with recent art installments, it appears that community members are more upset with their perceived lack of voice in the public art decisions than anything else.

"That's an issue that has nothing to do with art," Hamilton said.

Sjogren and Hamilton hope to address the many physical changes on Carnegie Mellon's campus by implementing a system through which plaques will be installed whenever a change, whether small or large, alters the face of the campus. Then, when community members notice something missing or something new, they will have information readily available that explains the change.

All three of the new executive branch members also believe in working to improve student space on campus, especially with regard to organizational meeting spaces and needs. In addition to organizational space, Sjogren and Hamilton are concerned with housing facilities. They plan to work on an initiative to have some gender-neutral housing options on campus. This means that there would be housing areas designated on campus in which potential residents would not have to name a gender during the room selection process.

"We always want to start with a small step," said Hamilton. For gender-neutral housing, this would mean working with Housing and Dining Services to create a small living community to those who would prefer not to specify a gender on their housing forms. She said that if such a community could be established for the 2007-2008 academic year, then the next Student Body President and Vice President could work with Housing to see if the housing were enjoyed by those who lived there. At the end of the year, the level of interest for this feature in future years could be determined.

Sjogren stressed that having some gender-neutral housing did not mean that all housing at Carnegie Mellon would necessarily be gender-neutral in the future.

"Not having to declare your gender… can be alienating to those who do want to," Sjogren said.

Other "small step" initiatives that Sjogren and Hamilton hope to implement are synchronized clocks throughout campus and TiVo in dormitories. TiVo and synchronized clocks are meant to help students save their time.

"Part of what we know about students is that their time is valuable," said Hamilton.

Sjogren and Hamilton also believe that TiVo could help with social interaction for "time-conscious and time-constrained" Carnegie Mellon students who might not otherwise be able to schedule in a time to watch their favorite television shows together.

Last but far from least, Sjogren and Hamilton hope to increase overall campus pride.

"We don't want to make grandiose claims that we'll make everyone love Carnegie Mellon all the time," said Sjogren.

However, he explained, he and Hamilton do hope that they can get organizations with the shared goal of increasing campus pride – such as the Athletics Council and the Carnegie Clan – to work together toward more programming to get students involved. Efforts have been made to get Carnegie Mellon students out to University games by offering transportation and free Carnegie Mellon paraphernalia, and Sjogren and Hamilton hope to build off of these efforts.

"The only way you get into sports is by going to the games," said Sjogren. "They're fun!"

Sjogren and Hamilton commend student organizations for their work this past year in creating new relationships and having meaningful co-sponsored programming. Student organizations have already shown initiative in coming together as a broader Carnegie Mellon community.

"You need to be able to have a good time… and have fun in public," said Hamilton. "[That] is pride increasing."

Hamilton doesn't expect a "large attitudinal shift because of election," but hopes that after a year of small but important changes, she hopes that she and Sjogren will leave a legacy of making the campus more active.

The newly elected executive branch members – Karl Sjogren, Andrea Hamilton, and Kirk Higgins – are happy to hear input from members of the Carnegie Mellon community about how to improve their University experience. For more information about Student Senate, visit Senate's website or contact your senators directly through e-mail.

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