The 2009 Student Union elections will be a battle of the freshmen, with one slate composed of all freshmen running against a slate of two freshmen, two upperclassmen.
College of Arts and Sciences and School of Management junior James Sappenfield, the current Academic Affairs Committee chairman, is the presidential candidate in the ‘Vision for BU’ slate, and CAS freshman Kathryn Fitzgerald, an Executive Staff member, heads the ‘New Frontier’ slate.
Current Union President Matt Seidel was the Academic Affairs chairman before winning the presidency last spring.
The Executive Staff, once referred to as the Student Union interns, is comprised of four freshmen who shadow the current executive board and have some responsibilities like managing the Union’s website. Fitzgerald is running with the three other current Executive Staff members. Caitlin Rose is the slate’s vice presidential nominee, Charles Manning is the secretary and Amanda Peterson is treasurer.
Fitzgerald said she does not envision the slate’s youth holding it back if she and are elected.
‘The Executive Staff is leadership training, if not a leadership role,’ Fitzgerald said. ‘We’ve been learning leadership skills all year.’
Sappenfield’s slate is more varied in terms of ages. His vice presidential running mate, Amy Mahler, is a College of Communication sophomore, and candidates Julianne Corbin, secretary, and Mary Gameng, treasurer, are freshmen.
When it comes to general policies, there is little to differentiate the slates. Both sets of candidates vow to improve the Union’s visibility on campus and to establish strong relationships with university administrators so that student demands actually turn into action.
Sappenfield said he would create student seats on faculty committees.
‘I’ve found out from talking with administrators that the councils would like student input, but they just don’t have student input there,’ Sappenfield said. ‘They don’t know how to connect to us, and we don’t often know how to connect to them.’
Sappenfield said his campaign is about empowering students with the resources and sense of community that will allow them to accomplish what they want on campus.
Fitzgerald’s team has created four initiatives that it would begin working on after a successful campaign. The ideas include forcing the administration to be more transparent about tuition, improving alumni relations by having a current BU student shadow graduates during the annual alumni weekend and pushing for laundry expenses to be included in tuition.
Many of Sappenfield’s more tangible initiatives stem from his work with Academic Affairs. Some of his priorities include creating a contextual transcript that would display BU graduates’ grades against the average grade for each course and expanding available study space in part by extending library hours.
Candidates will be allowed to campaign between noon on April 10 and noon April 17. Voting will begin at noon on April 17 and close one week later. During the campaigning, the vice presidential candidates will debate on Monday, April 13 at 5 p.m. and the presidential candidates will debate on April 15 at 6 p.m. Both debates are open to the public and will be held in the SMG auditorium.
About 2,900 students voted last year, a number that Student Elections Commission Vice Chairwoman Rachel Katz said the SEC is hoping to exceed.
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