Eighty-Four Seek Election To 1985 Marshal Position

Eighty-Four seniors met yesterday's 3 p.m. deadline for submitting nominating petitions for next week Class Marshal elections. This total is up five from last year's pool of 79.

The candidates include 46 men and 38 women--the reverse of last year's 45 women and 34 men. Victor A. Koivemaki III '68 associate director of classes and reunions for the Harvard Alumni Association, said that the ratio of men to women has been approaching one-to-one in recent years.

Four men and four women will be elected Marshals by their classmates in a two-week voting process that, for the first time, will coincide with elections for the Undergraduate Council. Like the Council elections, the Marshal ballotting will use the Hare Proportional Representation system, in which voters rank candidates in order of preference.

Koivemaki lauded the Hare process, which is also used by the Cambridge City Council, saying, "the beauty of the system is that when the ballots are counted, they tend to reflect minority and majority positions to the extent which they are represented in the electorate at large."

Once preliminary balloting takes place next Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, the field will be cut to eight men and eight women. Final balloting will take place on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, October, 9, 10 and 11.

Koivumaki said the move to consolidate the first round of Marshal elections with the Council voting was designed to take the pressure off upperclass House Committees, which oversee the ballotting in both elections.

The man and woman receiving the most votes will be the First Marshals. They are, according to the H.A.A., the co-Presidents of their class. The second, third, and fourth Marshals become the first, second and third vice presidents. These eight Marshals and 13 represenatives, one from each house, from the class Committee.

The Marshals, who keep their positions for life, and the Class Committee work with the Harvard and Radcliffe Alumni Associations to plan social and Commencement activities.

The Class Committee also appoints the class secretary and class treasurer and it coordinates, with the Development office, the selection of two seniors Gift to the University.