According to the preliminary list of candidates for the upcoming University-wide elections released by the University Board of Elections Feb. 7, there are 37 vacancies for student positions across the University.
The School of Architecture, undergraduate and graduate Schools of Continuing and Professional Studies, undergraduate and graduate Curry Schools of Education, undergraduate and graduate Schools of Nursing, undergraduate and graduate Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy, graduate School of Engineering and Applied Science and the undergraduate and graduate McIntire School of Commerce do not have candidates for their respective Student Council representative positions.
The Education Council, which is the representative body for students in both the undergraduate and graduate programs of the Curry School of Education, has 11 vacancies for 13 positions. The two non-vacancies are council president and graduate scholarship and professional development chair, which each has one candidate.
Curry graduate student and Education Council President Sarah Benson said in an email to The Cavalier Daily that seats without candidates are often filled with appointed students.
“Those diverse programs require many students to be off-grounds for practicum experiences and the unfilled seats allow our one-year Master's students to participate by filling any seats that do not have candidates,” Benson said. “Unfilled positions have traditionally been appointed by the Ed Council President after soliciting nominations or letters of interest from the incoming students.”
Additionally, there are no candidates for the Batten Undergraduate Council President or for the Batten Honor representative, which both had four candidates last year.
In an email to The Cavalier Daily, Robert McCarthy, Batten Undergraduate Council President and fourth-year College student, said he was unsure of the reason for the lack of candidates.
“Batten students tend to be pretty involved in other organizations around Grounds,” McCarthy said. “Since they've been in those organizations longer, there might be a larger desire to serve on those leadership boards.”
However, if no students decide to run for the positions on the Batten Undergraduate Council, McCarthy said the positions may be filled in an alternative election.
“We'll definitely fill the positions,” McCarthy said. “If all else fails, we'll run an internal election, which seems to be the fairest way to proceed.”
All candidates on the preliminary list have had to fulfill additional requirements in order to appear on the official ballot. Requirements included acquiring petition signatures, finishing questionnaires and submitting campaign expense reports. UBE has not released a verified final list of candidates by publication time.
Campaigning officially begins on Feb. 16 with voting starting on Feb. 21.
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