GPSC officers elected by secret ballot

Eleven of the council's 13 representatives attended the meeting and one member cast an absentee ballot.

In a 9-3 vote, Kathleen Fernicola, of the College of Agriculture, defeated A.J. Zimmerman, of the College of Law, to become the new GPSC president.

Fernicola was the council's 1996-97 elections officer.

"I really want to work to make this a horizontal association," she said. "I think any representative should be able to get their projects going without having to go through specific administrative officers."

Before casting votes, the council approved a tie-breaker solution because the recently approved GPSC constitution does not include specific election instructions.

In case of a tie, members decided to re-question the candidates, then re-vote. In case of a second tie, members decided to postpone the election until the next meeting. Neither of the elections resulted in a tie.

The office of executive vice president was filled by Laurin Eskridge, of the College of Law, who beat Hau Nguyen, of the College of Engineering and Mines, by a 7-5 vote.

Eskridge said one of her goals for the next year is to increase awareness of all GPSC events.

"I want to show graduate and professional students all that we can do for them," she said.

Because of non-specific elections instructions, the council decided to fill the uncontested seats of administrative vice president and treasurer by a show of hands while all in attendance kept their heads down.

By a unanimous show of hands, Lisa Rashotte, of the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, won the seat of administrative vice president and David Bowersox, of the Karl Eller Graduate College of Management, was voted in as treasurer.

In the race for council representative from the Karl Eller Graduate College of Management, Bowersox lost to Erik Carlson by a 22-vote margin.

However, runners-up in contested representative seats are able to run for administrative vice president and treasurer, as well as director and committee head seats.

Former President Alex Sugiyama said he was pleased with the slate of officers for the next year.

"I have the utmost confidence in the new council and I hope to be a resource for them to chat and brainstorm with," he said.