Associated Students Off-Campus Senator Dallin Mello was sworn in over FaceTime during Wednesday’s Senate meeting, replacing former UC Santa Barbara student and Off-Campus Senator Mordi Shadpour.
Mello was sworn in over FaceTime during the Wednesday night Senate meeting. Jose Ochoa / Daily Nexus
Mello, a third-year sociology and art double major, is currently studying abroad in Spain. He was voted in with 19 yes votes, one no vote and two abstentions.
He will have a proxy at Senate for the rest of Fall Quarter 2018.
He ran with the Isla Vista Party (IVP) during the Spring Quarter 2018 Elections on a platform of helping students with housing and food insecurity.
Mello was the first off-campus senator runner-up, having earned 4.4 percent of the first choice votes, according to the A.S. Elections Board website.
“Far too frequently we are seeing landlords unwilling to cooperate with students in our demands to have housing — in our demands to have our repairs done in manageable ways that we aren’t paying for,” Mello said to the Nexus during the 2018 Spring Quarter election.
Shadpour, who ran with Campus United (CU), won the highest percentage of first choice votes with 8.54 percent.
He transferred to the University of Southern California (USC) over the summer and resigned from his position as senator.
“After months of deliberation and hard decisions I decided to transfer to the USC Marshall School of Business, where I am pursuing a Bachelors of Science in Business Administration,” he said.
Shadpour said he is disappointed that he will not be serving as senator, but is “confident in the abilities of the [69th] senate” to do a great job.
Mello could not be reached for comment.
Sanya Kamidi contributed reporting.
This article will be updated.
