Last week, the freshman class elected two senators to serve on Undergraduate Student Government (USG). The winners, Mark McCarthy and Rory Moore, are both freshman members of the Pioneer Leadership Program (PLP).

Voting opened on Wednesday, Oct. 2 and concluded the next day. Members of the class of 2017 were emailed ballots and voted online. No representative from the Office of Student Life responded to inquiries from the Clarion as to the vote turnout or the vote breakdown.
A total of 12 candidates ran in the race to represent the class. According to one candidate, the final election results were close.

“[I] only lost by four votes,” said candidate Morris Sparkman.
Another candidate said the turnout rate was high, but he could not confirm the precise figures. Candidate Eddie Kamber said “a lot” of students voted.

390 students voted in the election, according to Megan Pendley-Pickett, Director of Student Activities.

In terms of campaigning, fliers, posters and chalk could be seen all over campus, especially concentrating in and around the freshmen residence halls. McCarthy, though, said he did not employ those tactics in his campaign.

“Most of my campaigning was word-of-mouth,” said McCarthy. “Mostly just talking to people that you see, walking past them. Obviously social networking was a really important aspect of it.”
McCarthy says PLP played a limited role in his election.
“The PLP is a tight-knit community, so obviously we had [their] support. I think that PLP maybe made up half of my votes,” said McCarthy.

McCarthy’s goals for his tenure on USG include assisting the ongoing initiatives that USG is already working on, such as improving the safety of students biking and walking on Evans Avenue and handling the mascot situation.

“Students have been injured or killed even, while crossing that road,” McCarthy said of Evans Avenue.
“We’re trying to impose lower speed limits on Evans Avenue, and I’m really supportive of campus safety cracking down more on students who jaywalk and students who cross when the crosswalk is not active,” said McCarthy.

Moore said that he wanted to find a new mascot for DU, and understood the Boone controversy.
“I think that the previous mascot, Boone, was a good mascot although it undermined the Native American community,” said Moore.

He also has several personal goals for his time in office.

“There really is a gap between international students, commuter students and regular students,” said McCarthy, who hopes to help address that gap.

“I’d rather represent the opinions of the entire student body than my personal opinions,” he said.