In a meeting that saw a lot of unanimous voting, the retreat of this term's top vote-getter and the flipping of coins - the Michigan Student Assembly elected its committee and commission chairs for the spring term.
The last meeting before break was filled with a large amount of agreement from assembly members as the election of 13 committee and commission chairs and five committee vice chairs took little more than half an hour.
"Good job, guys," MSA President Fiona Rose told members when the elections had come to a smooth and rapid end. "My first term on the assembly, this took 2 1/2 hours."
Of the 18 total elections, only one was contested - as newcomer LSA Rep. Jennifer Genovese defeated assembly veteran but current outsider Jonathan Freeman for safety chair.
"My main concern is off-campus safety," Genovese said before being elected by a large margin. "I've lived off campus for two years on Washtenaw and I've seen that Washtenaw is rated one of the most dangerous streets in Ann Arbor - that has to be a major concern."
In the only other election that saw some uncertainty, Engineering Rep. David Burden flipped a coin to decide whether he wanted to run for chair of the Peace and Justice Commission. Burden was later unanimously elected chair.
But the meeting did not go so well for all members.
Before the meeting many assembly members expected a heated battle for the position of chair of the communications committee. Upstart and popular LSA Rep. Ryan Friedrichs was expected to challenge MSA veteran and top winter elections vote-getter Dan Serota for the position.
As it turned out, Serota declined to run and Friedrichs was elected unanimously.
After the meeting Friedrichs said he hoped to improve the committee's communications efforts outside of the assembly.
"Communications is going to be by far the most influential and most effective committee," Friedrichs said. "Right now I see it as a weak link - the low turnout in the recent elections is reflective of our failed efforts at outside communication."
Serota said he decided not to run because he felt his efforts as chair had not received the necessary support from other assembly members.
"I think that communications is very important - but there needs to be real movement behind the committee's actions," Serota said. "We are communicating with people, but there isn't any action or support behind that communication right now."
MSA Vice President Probir Mehta said the lack of opposition and heated debate reflected the quality of those who ran for chair and vice chair positions.