Students elected 14 representatives Thursday from residence halls and off-campus in the Marquette Student Government elections.

The total number of votes submitted was 599, but 55 of those were invalid because of wrong MarquetteCard, voting in the wrong residential area or submitting multiple votes, Elections Coordinator and sophomore Brad Held said.

The new residential MUSG senators, who will serve for the 2003-’04 school year, are Brian Collar for Carpenter Tower, Jaime Wu for Cobeen Hall, Erich DeLang for Haggerty House, Annie Nolan for Mashuda Hall, Christopher Hoffman and Blake Kurinsky for McCormick Hall, Dan Calandriello for O’Donnell Hall, Peter Christian and Brant McCartan for Schroeder Hall, Anton Timms for South Hall, Robert Pham for Straz Tower and Michael Ford, Tom Hanson and Ross Guerin for Off-Campus.

Three off-campus positions and two commuter seats remain unfilled. Since the election, one commuter and one off-campus seat have been filled by appointment, Legislative Vice President and senior Mary Kate Havlik said. Brett Blomme was appointed off-campus senator and Murtaza Sajan was appointed as the new commuter senator.

Those representatives will attend their first MUSG senate meeting this Thursday.

Senate responsibilities include “allocating funds as specified by financial polices, regulating the operations of MUSG and its components by the consideration of legislation, actively seeking out and representing the opinion of the student body to the university by the consideration of recommendations and resolutions and overseeing all areas of MUSG,” according to the MUSG constitution.

Most of the senators are excited about their new positions on campus.

Collar said he wants to “make sure to get in touch with the (resident assistants) and residents to establish a line of communication.”

Wu wants to first learn what her new position will entail and be a liaison for the residents of Cobeen. She also said she is very excited to be a Senator.

“I was so nervous waiting for the results,” Wu said. “I was at the Union so when I got the call that I’d won on my cell phone, I started screaming.”

DeLang said that he wants to make sure that Haggerty House is well represented in MUSG and to draw up a constitution.

Hoffman and Kurinsky both said that they hope to work closely to represent McCormick Hall.

“I’m looking forward to working with Blake (Kurinsky),” Hoffman said. “I think we’ll establish a good friendship.”

Hoffman’s goal is to improve the laundry facilities.

“I’m from the hometown of Maytag appliances so I was thinking that we might be able to form an agreement between Maytag and Marquette,” Hoffman said.

Kurinsky said he hopes to improve the conditions of the mailrooms.

“People have been complaining about how they don’t get their mail or it’s the wrong mail or it’s late,” Kurinsky said.

Calandriello said he’s relieved that the election hoopla is over.

“I’m excited to work with fellow senators and learn the ropes of MUSG,” Calandriello said. “I really just want to strive to make sure that the administration is listening to what the students have to say.”

Christian said he wants to get students involved on campus.

“I’m a sophomore and I’ve noticed that the average student isn’t aware of all the opportunities to get involved, so I want to help promote that awareness,” Christian said.

Pham said he’s committed to working out an agreement between Sodexo foods and Straz Tower to donate leftover food to the homeless.

“This seems like a reasonable option, especially since we live next to the church,” Pham said.

Ford said he’s going to focus on the concerns for off-campus housing next year.

“The landlords around here make students sign their leases by Oct. 4 and that’s ridiculously early,” Ford said. “So I definitely want to look into this.”

Hanson said that it’s an honor to be an MUSG senator; however he’s disappointed in the lack of candidates.

Hanson said he also wants to get students involved with the Student Alliance of Wisconsin.

“It’s an organization that meets bi-weekly and discusses issues in the Wisconsin General Assembly,” Hanson said. “It’s made up of individuals and lobbyists.”

One issue that most of the senators expressed concern over is the number of senators for each hall.

“I believe that having two or more residential senators for one given area is a hindrance on the legislative process and an upset in balance,” Calandriello said. “There needs to be equal number or representatives across campus, and I think that this is something we should look into changing.”

Hoffman disagrees.

“It’s beneficiary with two senators, especially in the larger dorms, because each has different legislation they’d like to see passed and different views to express,” Hoffman said.,”Rikida N. Starace”

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