The Middlebury Campus

Issue date: 5/1/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Angela Evancie Bobby Joe Smith III '09 and Antoinette Rangel '09 will serve as SGA President and SCCOOC. [Click to enlarge]

Bobby Joe Smith III '09 secured the Student Government Association (SGA) presidency on April 25 after last week's run-off election against Hiba Fakhoury '09. His victory marked the culmination of a particularly exciting race, with elections splitting into two rounds in light of the record number of students contending for the SGA's prominent position.

Smith and Fakhoury emerged as finalists two weeks ago when none of the 10 SGA presidential hopefuls managed to receive 50 percent of the votes, forcing the run-off between the top two candidates. According to Max Nardini '08, the current SGA president, almost 1,200 students followed up in the second round of polls, which opened online April 24 and closed the next afternoon at 12:30 p.m. The run-off election was extremely close, with Fakhoury and Smith receiving 49.28 percent and 50.72 percent of votes, respectively.

Following the results, Smith and Fakhoury both reflected on the campaign process. In an e-mail interview, Fakhoury expressed an overall positive impression.

"I think the election process this year was the best Middlebury has seen in a long time," wrote Fakhoury. "I am a strong believer in the free market mechanism, and competition is certainly beneficial for our community. I think in a way it got people talking about the SGA more than they have in past elections [that] didn't last as long, or did not provide that much competition. As a result, I noticed a lot more involvement from the student body in the process and I am looking forward to seeing that continue next year."

Though Smith admitted that an inadequate flyer-based communication system and the absence of a candidate debate created some campaign obstacles, he echoed Fakhoury's general sentiment.

"I really enjoyed the elections," said Smith. "I liked the amount of options that the student body had. Nobody far and away took this election. And I think that was a good thing, not a bad thing. We had a lot of strong candidates and that only helps the student body as far as I'm concerned."

Continued...

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