Tag: run-off election

The little things matter most

I want to begin by congratulating the four members of the class of 2016 who were voted to the Senior Class Council. Juniors Shelli Reeves, Milagros Green, Kelly Johnson and Sean Roskamp will make up the council for next year’s graduating class.

As most of you probably don’t know, the process of electing the president and vice president was broken this year.

After Ben Miller and Brittany Spicer were elected to be president and vice president on March 27, they received congratulations from Rock Jones, the President’s assistant, current Senior Class Council President Liz Fisher and friends around campus. Everything was peachy and it seemed like a normal election. Not so fast!

Soon after, they received an email from the post-graduate intern Hillary Fowler to notify them of the upcoming run-off election. Apparently, if candidates win without 50 percent of the vote, there must be a run-off election. These rules were never stated prior to the election.

With not even half the junior class voting and three candidates running for president and VP, gaining 50 percent is nearly impossible.

The run-off election took place this past week with even fewer people voting. Reeves and Green won even though they didn’t receive as many votes as Miller and Spicer during the first election.

Now, at this point, I’m not really mad, just disappointed. I can’t help but feel bad for Miller and Spicer. According to the stated rules (or lack thereof), they won the spots fair and square the first go around.

Ohio Wesleyan blew it. This is pathetic. How hard is it to run a fair election? Many students, including myself, had the same response when hearing the news: chuckled and let out a big “that’s bullshit.” No wonder the school is losing so much money. Yes, this is on a very small scale and no one will care in two weeks, but sometimes it’s the little things that matter most in life.

Keeping your word is a great quality to have. I like to think I’m someone who keeps my word.  I’m sure you would like that reputation as well. And I’m 100 percent certain OWU wants to be viewed as an esteemed institution. Why else would we hire a branding consultant and get a brand new tour bus?

Ohio Wesleyan, if you’re reading this, it’s too late. But for next time, communicate with the candidates a little more thoroughly. If potential students hear about the professionalism of the Senior Class Council election, maybe enrollment will go back up.

Controversial run-off voting for senior class council takes place

The announcement of a run-off election for Senior Class Council in late March has not gone over well with candidates who were previously told they won.

In order to confirm the results of the initial election, juniors Ben Miller and Brittany Spicer – who were told they won via email – were yet again forced to contend for president and vice president.

Miller went against Shelli Reeves for president and Spicer against Milagros Green for vice president. All of those who are running are juniors, a requirement of the election.

“When I first found out there would be a run off, I was angry,” Spicer said. “We had gotten multiple emails confirming the election results and congratulatory messages from faculty, staff, students and even Rock Jones.”

Miller, who is the Arts and Entertainment editor at The Transcript, shared his disapproval.

“I was just really surprised, I was congratulated by the administration and then it was just kind of taken away,” Miller said.

Miller said he found the proceedings unfair and the school should have notified all of the candidates beforehand.

Two other additions to the Senior Class Council, secretary Kelly Johnson and treasurer Sean Roskamp, were unaffected by the announcement of a run-off.

Roskamp ran unopposed and Johnson won the majority of her votes. This resulted in both keeping their positions.

Still, Johnson was upset with how things played out.

“It was definitely pretty frustrating,” Johnson said. “How can you tell someone they won when they didn’t?”

During the run-off election, the worry was whether or not enough people would vote. Those who were still in the running for president and vice president did not campaign as much the second time around.

“I think the big concern is just getting enough people to vote in general this time,” Spicer said. “No one was really expecting this to happen, so I haven’t seen any candidates putting as much into campaigning as we all did the first time.”

Reeves and Green sent out emails reminding students to vote, but not much else has been done in terms of campaigning from any of the candidates.

The run-off voting took place online, April 8-9. And after tallying the results, Reeves and Green won their respective positions.