Following the CUNY University Student Senate’s (USS) hung election for the Vice Chair of Fiscal Affairs, Brooklyn College Delegate Fay Yanofsky won the position after seven rounds of voting. The final plenary conference was held this past Sunday, Nov 24, where Yanofsky reached her victory.
Yanofsky says she felt the tension during the conference as the delegates went to go vote for either herself, or for her opponent John Mondal from Baruch College. “Everybody gets up to go to another room to vote, which happened five times, and that’s very intense,” Yanofsky said. “You feel negative energy, positive energy, and these are the emotions that partake. This is just the reality of the nature of elections.”
Yanofsky got all 29 votes from the delegates after giving her speech and greeting everyone that attended the conference. “I gave my speech, John [Mondal] came in forty minutes late,” Yanofsky said. “I came on time and people were telling me to shake hands. I was nervous and I still introduced myself.” She attributes her victory to the networking she had done for herself, and the fortunate tardiness of her opponent.
“My speech resonated with the voters,” Yanofsky goes on, “And what happened [during the sixth round] was everybody got up, everybody voted and I got 24 votes and [Mondal] got 14 votes.”
Now closer to her victory, Yanofsky had to reel in 5 more votes to win the chair. “He could have withdrew his nomination at 24 [votes]. During the seventh round, I got the 29 votes and [Mondal] got 11,” Yanofsky said, “We had to fight until the end.”
The Vice Chair of Fiscal Affairs has to pass a budget by December. And since Yanofsky only gained the position at the beginning of the month, she has to do her job quicker than if she won the chair on Oct. 21.
“I have a couple of weeks to pass this budget,” said Yanofsky. “ But since I have experience in it, it’ll be fine.”