Joe Engleman ’14 joined SGA Joint Board this week as a senator from East Campus, winning an uncontested special election to replace Lily Jamaludin ’14, who resigned her seat.

“Lily did a great job representing East so far,” Engleman said. “I plan on doing my best to continue to make sure the voice of East Campus is heard.”

Last year, Engleman was the senator for Loose during Spring semester 2011. He lost an eight-way race for senator at the beginning of the school year. Rathje is a major change from his old home, and at first, the transition was difficult.

Earlier in the year, Engleman was behind the student initiative to defeat the moniker “bEast Campus.” Engleman claims that the enmity on East generated by this initiative subsided, and he is excited to represent his new neighbors and friends.

“One of the things that is going on East is that it is trying to get a sense of community,” Engleman said. “East is out there in a sense, because there is a gap between North and South, with East becoming a mixing ground.”

After an open forum on Sunday, students on East Campus began casting their ballots on Monday. There were a few minor difficulties in setting up for the special election, but the SGA Cabinet saw the event as a success.

“Really, there isn’t a whole lot of precedent for special elections,” said SGA Administrative Coordinator Alex White ’12. “Because of a problem with the system, we started the election two hours late, but we extended the voting deadline.”
Engleman was the only candidate in the race—the ballot came down to a vote between him and “no confidence.”

“No confidence didn’t stand a chance,” White said.

“I’m glad that I beat no confidence. I got 80 percent of the vote, which was the highest I have ever received in an election, so I was very pleased,” Engleman said.

Although there are only five Joint Board Meetings remaining—about one third of the total—Engleman hopes to have a big impact.

“There are times when big issues come up at Joint Board. Student accessibility is what this school is all about, and that is Joint Board at its height,” Engleman said. “Most of Joint Board this year has been a single parliamentary battle to confirm a first year presiding officer. I would like to find out what really needs to get done, so we can achieve some things for the students of Grinnell.”