n I was shocked to read someone doubting that president-elect Adil Yunis could have “even half as much heart as Mark DiCristofaro,” (“DiCristofaro deserved Student Union presidency,” April 23, p. 8).
Let me preface this by saying that all candidates had a lot of heart. Their choices to run showed that all of them wanted to do better for the students and the university. But when someone felt the need to take a shot at Yunis’s heart, I felt the need to stand up.
When campaigning, Yunis was armed with a few things: paper flyers, a backpack full of little rubber ducks and his words. He didn’t have a team spreading his word with glossy flyers and professional portraits. He didn’t have a website for himself. He didn’t have T-shirts for himself, and he didn’t have freebies like vitamin water, condoms, Red Sox tickets and a free-food party at Qdoba to support his campaign. He also didn’t have that “insider” support, either.
Yunis was truly an underdog armed with heart. He came from the outside and won with no glitz to attract voters. In fact, I wouldn’t say he attracted any voters at all.
Yunis worked hard to show himself to students — going dorm to dorm, table to table, to not only tell them what he thought should change, but to ask them what they needed as well. Yunis won votes not by attracting people but by reaching out to them.
I do not doubt the amount of heart in any of the candidates. Yet when I step back and look at the tools some had to win, the advantageous positions that some were already in and the final results, know that Yunis had to have a lot of determination and heart to win over his opponents – and he did.
Congratulations, and good luck to Yunis.
Danny Thorn
CAS ’08