A fifth-place finisher from the last spring’s Student Government elections has filled a vacancy on College Council (CC) for the Class of 2017. 

The vacancy was created when fourth-year Peggy Xu, former Class of 2017 representative, was elected as CC chair for the coming year. She ran uncontested. 

Fourth-years Joshua Engelman, Kareem Kebaish, Sumit Banerjee, and William Jones each received four write-in votes in the spring. All candidates were sent an e-mail by Max Freedman, chair of the Election and Rules Committee, which gave them the opportunity to submit a statement of intent and one signature from their constituency. If more than one was interested in the position, CC would vote on who became the representative. This rule is present in Article V §2 of the CC by-laws.  

Article V §2 was changed last year to require that write-in candidates have to earn at least as many votes as the lowest ranked official candidate in order to claim a vacancy. However, the by-laws were not properly filed. By-laws are not technically in effect until they are made available for public inspection.  

Engelman was the only student to submit a statement of intent and signature. 

“Josh submitted his statement and the signature he collected on Sunday,” Freedman said. “Kareem Kebaish initially expressed interest, but rescinded his interest when it became clear that others were interested. William Jones declined to claim the seat, and Sumit Banerjee also did not claim the seat.” 

On Tuesday, Engelman was seated on CC.   

The Maroon asked him for comment Wednesday and all he had to say at the time was, “Go Cubs!”