Union VP resigns
New election set for September
Published: August 29, 2008Section: Front Page
A new election for Student Union Vice-President will be held in September after Michael Kerns’ ’09 resigned from his post. Kerns, a former Village quad senator, was elected Vice-President in April.
He will not return to the university this fall “for personal reasons,” according to a campus-wide e-mail sent out by Union Director of Communications, Jamie Ansorge ’09.
Included in Ansorge’s e-mail was a short comment from Kerns. “I should like to take this opportunity to express my great confidence in and admiration for our Union and its representatives,” Kerns wrote. “I anticipate leadership of the highest remark this coming year.” Kerns did not respond to requests for comment from The Hoot.
Sign-ups for the new election will begin Sept. 3, Union President Jason Gray ’10 said. “Unfortunately [resignations] happen and you move forward,” Gray commented. “We have everything in place to make sure the process moves smoothly.”
Recently elected Union Secretary Tia Chatterjee ’09 will oversee the election process.
Last spring, Kerns defeated four other candidates, including former secretary Nelson Rutrick ’09, former Senator-at-Large Andrew Brooks ’09, former class of 2009 Senator Julia Sferlazzo, and former Finance Board member Jordan Rothman ’09, to secure his position. In the final round of the election, he defeated Rothman by just over 5 percentage points. Sferlazzo and Rothman have since been elected to the Union Judiciary.
Before securing the vice-presidency, Kerns was involved in a gender-neutral housing initiative. He had been party to talks between members of TransBrandeis and Residence Life officials. That project, Gray explained, “will be picked up by other members of the E-board.”
In the interim, before a new vice-president is elected, Executive Senator Eric Alterman ’09 will fill Kerns’ spot overseeing the Union Senate meetings, per the Union Constitution, Gray explained.