The Engineering student government has a new engine.
Following last week's elections, junior Kim Dillon is the new University of Michigan Engineering Council president, and junior Jason Bubolz was elected internal vice president. The positions of treasurer and secretary will be filled by junior David Burden and sophomore Susie Milas.
The external vice presidency is presently vacant.
Only Engineering students can take part in the elections, which have a low profile compared to the Michigan Student Assembly elections. Candidates said talking to friends was more effective than putting up signs.
"I put up a couple of posters," Dillon said. "Mostly I just used word-of-mouth."
Apparently, Dillon's tactics worked. She cruised to victory, gaining 70 percent of the vote over senior Chris Mortis. She already has some plans for her presidential term.
"I plan to get a feel for how the last term went," she said. "I want to know what issues my constituency and my adviser think are pressing."
Dillon specified inadequate parking on North Campus as one of her first concerns.
That's fine with Mortis, who said the issues matter much more than who serves as president.
"The race was competitive, but it's more important that we get the issues out," he said. "I hope the parking issue gets resolved."
The position of external vice president is still up in the air. Junior Amy Fischer carried 71 percent of the vote to junior Nick Yang's 29 percent. But Fischer is not going to be on campus next semester, and is stepping down before the first UMEC meeting.
"I guess it's fun to win," Fischer said. "But I really can't do anything with it right now. I already joined an engineering work co-op, and it was too late to take my name off the ballot."
UMEC will select a new external vice president at the first meeting of the new executive board.
Burden was elected treasurer in the closest race of the UMEC elections. Burden's 134 votes edged sophomore Jeffrey LeMaster's 123, a 29.7 percent to 27.2 percent victory in the four-way race. Senior Joel Young and senior Peter Perakis received 23.5 percent and 19.6 percent, respectively.
Burden faces one more hurdle before serving on UMEC, though.
"I'm in an interesting situation," he said. "UMEC passed a constitutional amendment a few weeks ago saying that you can't serve on the UMEC board and (the Michigan Student Assembly) at the same time."
Burden won an Engineering seat in MSA elections last week. UMEC will decide on his situation soon, he said.
The internal vice president and secretary races were uncontested.