Representin’!

I have been elected as a rep­re­sen­ta­tive of Par­sons to the New School’s Uni­ver­sity Stu­dent Sen­ate for the 2008–2009 aca­d­e­mic year. I have been on the sen­ate this past aca­d­e­mic year, the first year the school has had a sen­ate. We have posi­tioned our­selves effec­tively to make a greater impact on the gov­er­nance and social cli­mate of the school. There’s another year of hard work ahead of us. And par­i­ties! We’ll be start­ing with an ice­cream social tomor­row night for all elected rep­re­sen­ta­tives (Thanks Peter for orga­niz­ing this!).

Here’s the let­ter that Bob Kerry, pres­i­dent of the New School, sent out today:

April 28, 2008

A NOTE TO THE NEW SCHOOL COMMUNITY

I am pleased to announce the results of the Uni­ver­sity Stu­dent Sen­ate elec­tion for the 2008–2009 term of office. We had a very suc­cess­ful show­ing with 26 can­di­dates run­ning for 16 seats. A total of 578 stu­dents voted. This rep­re­sents 7% of eli­gi­ble stu­dent vot­ers which puts us slightly above the national aver­age of 6%. This is an impres­sive accom­plish­ment for a Uni­ver­sity Stu­dent Sen­ate that is just con­clud­ing its first full semes­ter in office, and is an indi­ca­tion of how much our stu­dents care about being active in the New School com­mu­nity.

Here are the win­ners of this year’s election:

Kate Grif­fin of Lang

Dan Schul­man of Lang

Ben Fox of Jazz

Jason Mel­low of Mannes

Yona­ton Sun­shine of Milano

Heather Sheri­dan of Milano

Alek­san­dra Malejs of Drama

Eliz­a­beth Loran of NSSR

Atlee McFellin of NSSR

Ida Benedetto of Parsons

Renee Blun­don of Parsons

Stephanie Cohen of Parsons

Sarah Lopez of Parsons

Peter Ian Cum­mings of Gen­eral Studies

Sarah Cun­ning­ham of Gen­eral Studies

Bar­bara Teed of Gen­eral Studies

In addi­tion to these win­ners, a ref­er­en­dum for a $5 stu­dent activ­ity fee has passed. The Sen­ate will work with the uni­ver­sity to explore the pos­si­bil­ity of imple­ment­ing the fee for the 2009–2010 aca­d­e­mic year. If adopted, this fee will allow the Uni­ver­sity Stu­dent Sen­ate to cre­ate university-wide events and pro­mote other stu­dent orga­ni­za­tions on cam­pus.

I look for­ward to work­ing in close col­lab­o­ra­tion with the USS to make a bet­ter uni­ver­sity for our stu­dents. Please join me in con­grat­u­lat­ing these stu­dent lead­ers who will be work­ing dili­gently to enhance the stu­dent expe­ri­ence at the New School.

Bob Ker­rey