The Student Government Association recently published its official election report for the 2008-2009 academic year.

The document provides voting statistics, ballot qualifications, official clauses, complaints and the results for governmental positions at the University of Massachusetts.

As detailed in the report, a total of 2,425 votes were cast for Area Government positions. The Southwest Residential Area had the largest voter participation with a total of 885 ballots, while the North Residential Area had the lowest turnout of 66 ballots.

“The elections in Southwest went much better than last year, I think, due to better advertising,” said newly elected Southwest Governor Chris Faulkner.

In the Southwest Residential Area, Faulkner won the position of governor by a landside of 504 validated votes, and Jason Thurm received the title of lieutenant governor with 461 validated votes. Liz Paquette received the position of treasurer, and Kristi Ortez was awarded the title of secretary.

In the Sylvan Residential Area, Annie Lajoie received the title of governor and Michael Urbanowski won the position of lieutenant governor. Urbanowski also received the largest amount of votes for secretary of this area. The position of treasurer was awarded to David Wemhoener.

In the Northeast Residential Area, Sahil Shanghavi won the position of governor with nine votes, and Stephen Brown was awarded lieutenant governor. Jimmy Cheung received the largest amount of votes for both secretary and treasurer in Northeast.

In the Central Residential Area, Andrew Dawson and Andrew Katcher tied for the position of governor with four validated votes each. Similarly, Kiel Boutelle and Bilal Janjua tied for the position of lieutenant governor. Jess Hegarty received the position of secretary with four validated votes, and Jason Dell’Orfano was awarded the title of treasury.

In the North Residential Apartment Area, Timothy Alden received the title of governor with 39 validated votes, and Keith Sheffer won the position of lieutenant governor. Both Andrew Dawson and Matthew Rosenthal received two votes for the position of treasurer. Clive Wan and Alex Gomberg each received one vote for the title of secretary.

For commuter representation, Vanessa Snow won the position of governor with a total of 24 validated votes. Aaron Buford won the position of lieutenant governor, while Nathan Lane, and Analua Fontes received the positions of treasurer and secretary respectively.

As a result of ties and low number of votes, the SGA has not administered several positions. However, several candidates have officially received their titles, and intend to improve the well-being of students in the designated areas.

“In the upcoming year I plan to uphold some of the traditions,” said Faulkner. “Southwest Fest had a pretty good turnout, this year we had problems with the Southwest Barbeque, but we plan to bring it back next year. We also plan to have a hypnotist; we are going to bring back the one we used previously. At one point we had a meeting with a committee considering a meeting to renovate the Southwest concourse, and I’m hoping to continue that and as always we will be continuing Southwest Week. However, all of our plans depend on how the budget comes in.”

When asked to comment on future developments from these elected leaders, UMass sophomore English major Monica Sweeney addressed some topics that she believes need to come to light.

“Some of the issues that I find most crucial regarding better funding for UMass is public safety and a greater emphasis and support system for student organizations. I have volunteered for PHENOM [Public Higher Education Network of Massachusetts] and the problems students and faculty face regarding limited public school funding is becoming increasingly more detrimental. In terms of public safety, recent cover stories in The Daily Collegian regarding violence in the school only begin to highlight the ill-fostered security at UMass,” said Sweeney.

“I would like to see activities that will get more students involved. We also need more input from people in their living areas,” commented SGA Butterfield representative Jennifer Leclair.

“With the warmer weather, I would like to see some live performances in my living area,” said UMass freshman history major Alex Chautin. “I would also like to see more exciting events, instead of the lukewarm activities that we have now.”

Shruti Sehgal can be reached at [email protected]. Lisa DeBenedictis can be reached at [email protected].