Elections will take place today to fill positions on the Sophomore, Junior, and Senior Class Councils.
The elections, which will be held online on the Tufts WebCenter from 9:30 a.m. until 11:59 p.m., are sponsored by the Office of Student Activities.
According to Programming Board Co-Chair Jason Bauer, the members are responsible for organizing special events for each class.
"Class Councils are organizations that are tasked with providing their classes with various academic and social programming," he said. "There is a lot of leeway in what they can do."
Class Council members are also part of the Programming Board, which plans larger, all-campus events including the Nighttime Quad Reception, Winter Bash, and Spring Fling.
Bauer said that the ability to work as a coherent unit is an essential quality for councils.
"Especially for Class Council, the ability to work in groups is important," he said. "There are five of you working together, basically on an equal footing in terms of what you do for an event. Everyone's switching and everyone's helping."
Senior Class President candidate Lisa Berger said that Class Councils were a relatively young institution, and that the fact that the elections were contested was a testament to their growing prominence on campus.
"They're gaining in popularity, and so far have a great foundation," she said. "We need to go above and beyond that."
Berger, Andrew Savini and Alex Antoniou will face off in a three-way race for president of the Senior Class Council, which holds extra significance because of its budget and responsibility for planning senior week and senior pub nights for the class of 2007.
Berger is seeking her fourth consecutive victory as Class Council President. This year, one of her primary goals is unity.
"I have experience that will allow me to make things better," she said. "I love Tufts, but the one thing really lacking is school spirit and class unity."
She also plans to help students prepare for future endeavors by facilitating free practice tests and discounted preparation classes through Kaplan for the LSATs, MCATs and GREs.
Savini, who has been involved with the Beelzebubs and the Institute for Global Leadership, has a similar focus on providing seniors with an effective transition.
"Career guidance will be a priority. [I want to] get more career guidance seminars/lectures for seniors early in the year, before apps begin," he wrote in an e-mail to the Daily.
He also wants to increase networking and to work on maximizing the impact of student events. "I want to bring our class together under a shared banner of class spirit," he said.
He also calls for monthly senior pub night and free senior gifts, and wants to effectively make use of Sophia Gordon Hall as a social center.
Antoniou, the current Treasurer for the Junior Class Council, focused on experience in a campaign advertisement.
"During my last three years, I have been an active member of the campus community, through our cultural and academic groups and the Greek system," he said.
His connections and broad exposure, he said, will work to his advantage.
"As a result, I feel that I am very able to represent a broad cross-section of the Class of 2007," he said.
Both Berger and Antoniou worked to put together the budget for next year's Senior Class Council.
"We have a pub night in every month, and senior week tickets will be the cheapest they've ever been," Berger said of the budget plans.
Also for the senior class, Brandy Chambers and JoJo Yang are vying for vice president (VP) for social programming. Rob Kim and Saadon Davis are running for Treasurer. Amanda Forsythe is running uncontested for VP academic and Jessica Lessing uncontested for Secretary.
The candidates for Sophomore Class Council President are Ryan Pallathra and Saskia Chanoine.
Pallathra hopes to develop a sense of community by focusing on unity within the class and between the class and the community. "Socially, I would like to promote trips and events which give our class more opportunities to interact on and off-campus," he said.
He also wants to bring more academic opportunities to campus. "Academically, I'll make it my goal to promote speakers, programs and workshops that cater to our important needs," he said in a campaign advertisement.
Chanoine said that her past experiences qualified her for the job. "I feel that I'd be good in the job. I have experience in the field. I've participated in student government since 6th grade," she said.
Chanoine said that as vice president of social programming for this year's Freshman Class Council, she helped put together several successful events, including a chocolate fondue party and massage party. "I'm used to helping plan school-wide events," she said.
She said that she also proposed spontaneous fun events to help alleviate stress, including a moon walk or karaoke events for students to blow off steam.
"I really like to listen and work with other people," she said. "I'm very approachable and organized."
Michael Adams and Jill Morrissey are running for the VP academic position. There is a four-way race between Ben Broderick, Lidia Borsova, Yeonjung Park, and John Erban for the VP Social position. Laura Berman and Katie Muller are vying for Treasurer.
Junior Class Council Positions are already filled, and are uncontested. Erica Shipow will serve as President for the fall, and Michelle Paison will serve in the spring.
Peter Davidson will serve as VP social in the fall, and Jacob Shapiro will serve in the spring.
Sarah Lawson will serve as VP academic in the fall, and Daniel Freedman will be the treasurer for the year.
The Fall VP academic position and the full-year treasurer position are still open.
CORRECTION APPENDED: The first line of this article originally said that class council elections would take place "tomorrow." The elections will in fact take place "today," Apr. 25, 2006. The Daily apologizes for the error.
