Four positions within the Residential Hall Association’s Executive Board at Taylor Place were left vacant at an election held on Monday for the upcoming academic year, after elections were postponed last week to garner more student participation.
“Last week, we were immediately preceded by the ASASUD elections, and the quick turnaround from their elections to ours confused a lot of people,” said Amy Kijewski, the current president RHA’s executive board. “So we gave ourselves an extra week to advertise to the students, explain the differences in the elections to them, as well as give more people the opportunity to run.”
The four voters in attendance named journalism freshman Alex Flamini president. Flamini was originally planning on running for secretary, but after no one else stepped up for the role, she decided to run for the position of president.
“I decided I had more of a vision for RHA than I thought,” Flamini said. “I’m looking forward to leading the group next year and hopefully bringing RHA more into the spotlight.”
The positions of vice-president, secretary, treasurer and historian remained open to residents of Taylor Place for the 2009-2010 school year. Students serving on the RHA’s executive board, which consists of five positions, are paid $500 each semester and serve about 5 hours per week during one year terms.
Members of the executive board must also live in Taylor Place. Jennifer Doty, the RHA’s advisor, said that requirement may have caused a lack of turn-out at this election.
“A lot of people aren’t sure if they were going to come back next year … since Taylor Place is pretty expensive,” Doty said. “It makes it tough.”
Doty added that they are considering holding another election in the fall to fill the remaining spots and amending the current constitution, which says that elections are to be held in March of the previous school year.
Contact the reporter at vpelham@asu.edu
