A battle raged between Kelly Clarkson and Green Day as Leah Witt and her campaign staff waited for the Associated Student Government election results Tuesday night. Though Clarkson prevailed, Witt had to pause “Since U Been Gone” when her cell phone rang.
The room fell silent until she raised her fist triumphantly and the group gathered in her living room cheered. The Weinberg junior won the student services vice presidential election with about 53 percent of the vote. Her opponent, Weinberg junior Adi Shankar, received about 39 percent of the vote.
Witt campaigned on a platform of increasing dorm security with professional security guards and security cameras and putting condoms in more dorm vending machines. She also said she hopes to create an all-campus wireless Internet system and continue the push for a South Campus cafe.
Shankar’s platform included having Gmail take over Webmail and creating a free summer storage program for students. He said he hoped he could help the Student Services Committee by using the corporate connections he made through working with the advertising agencies The 47 Company and AdShop.
Witt spent the day passing out lollipops and going from door to door in dorms. She found time to go to class but spent most of it sending out last-minute campaign e-mails and not paying attention, she said.
Later, Witt and her campaign manager Claire Bergeron, a Weinberg junior, went from door to door in the dorms. Getting into dorms where they didn’t know any residents was difficult, and they often stood outside the front doors hoping residents would let them inside.
“This is really bad,” Witt said as she went up an elevator in the Communications Residential College on Tuesday afternoon. “I’m advocating dorm security and I’m trying to break in.”
Bergeron laughed, saying that if Witt’s dorm security platform is successful, life will be much more difficult for next year’s candidates.
Witt will be sworn in at tonight’s Senate meeting.
Shankar said he was disappointed with the results but was proud of the almost 1200 votes he received. He said he thought this was the highest number of votes an ASG outsider has received in an election.
Shankar said he campaigned mostly door-to-door, trying to challenge what he described as the lack of connection between ASG and individual students.
“There is a large portion of the student body that is dissatisfied with the government, is dissatisfied with the process,” Shankar said. ” I obviously don’t have all the answers; I’ve never claimed to have all the answers. But I want to be a resource for ASG and help in any way necessary.”
Reach Diana Samuels at [email protected].
