SRC Elections 2008 Successful Despite Political Tension

AUB students cast their votes on January 11

Believing that student participation, responsibly carried out, enhances the educational process, the University Senate has established a long-standing tradition of student elections at AUB.

Initially scheduled for November 28, the elections were postponed this year in light of Lebanon's disorderly presidential elections and finally took place on January 11 at various locations on campus. Held in the backdrop of Lebanon's extremely tense and heavily polarized political situation, which largely determined the alliances formed by candidates and the ballots cast by voters, the elections passed remarkably smoothly. However, only 25 percent of eligible voters (the AUB students enrolled in degree programs) elected the 95 representatives from the six faculties and schools they belong to.

Despite the tension created by the political clamor outside West Hall after the elections, what Milia Ayache, editor-in-chief of Outlook, the AUB student newspaper, described as "an electrifying verbal showdown," the winners of the coveted.

SRC 2007-08 seats were promptly announced on the evening of January 11.

Twenty-six students were elected in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, fourteen in the Olayan School of Business, eight in the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences, and nine in the Faculty of Health Sciences. The second largest faculty in terms of the number of student voters and candidates was the Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, where 21 candidates were elected. Medical and nursing students also elected their representatives, nine in the Faculty of Medicine and four in the School of Nursing. Out of the 95 winners, only three won by acclamation.