Woody, Philbrook win close race for '07 AS presidency

By Rachel Schwartz

Austin Woody and Bobby Philbrook won the Associated Students presidential election in a close race on Tuesday and will be sworn in as next year's president and vice president at the May 24 AS Senate meeting.

Woody and Philbrook received 53.98 percent of the vote. Runners up Patrick Befort and Jamie Nally received 46.02 percent of the vote.

The number of students who voted this year was 1,080 -- 21.4 percent of the student population -- a slight downturn in voter participation from last year's 1,373 votes, when 30.5 percent of students cast a ballot.

This was the second year that students had the option of voting on eCampus. Students were able to vote online between 8 a.m. and midnight Tuesday, a change from last year's midnight to 8 p.m. voting window. The change was made so that members of the Information Technology staff could be on hand if any problems arose.

Although some students were confused about the process of confirming their vote through the system, there were no major problems with the voting process, AS Senate Chair Anton Zanotto said.

Woody and Philbrook ran on a platform that promised to work to resurrect homecoming, participate in an intercollegiate intramural football championship, raise awareness of sexual assault issues and continue an open dialogue on housing security.

Woody has been an AS senator since 2004 and is the current chair of the University Issues committee.

Philbrook was an orientation leader last fall and has been a reporter for The Santa Clara since last fall.

Christian Gagel, current chair of the Be Heard committee, won the senate chair race running unopposed.

In other election results, Megan Coluccio, Adam Fox, Virginia Suarez and Mike Truettner were elected as senior senators, leaving one open senator position.

Kelly Gleitsmann, Mandi Collins and Carlos Merida were elected to be junior senators, leaving two open spots.

In the only competitive senator race, Megan Kollar, Jake Lyssy, Katherine Nicholson, Katherine Quinn-Shea and Britt Williams were all elected as sophomore senators.

Contact Rachel Schwartz at (408) 554-4546 or rschwartz@scu.edu.