Eager candidates for Student Council President have overrun the Andover campus with petitions, posters, and platforms in preparation for the upcoming race. As of Wednesday, 22 presidential hopefuls had declared their candidacy. The candidates include the three current Upper representatives, Billy Doyle ’05, Bobby Spang ’05 and Franklin Davison ’05. “My two major platform themes are communication – it’s unavoidable – and increased Student Council confidence,” said Doyle. Though Doyle believes the Council improved communication this year with the pace of life response survey and the new radio show hosted by Student Government President Allegra Asplundh-Smith ’04 and WQN Senior Representative Aaron Stroble ’04, he will continue to commit to communication if elected. Doyle’s said his eventual goal is “to create an environment where students are encouraged to voice their opinions and are confident that their ideas will be considered.” Spang, who has served as a class representative on the Council for the past three years, has a wide variety of goals, concerning everything from expansion of the Ryley Room to the availability of two-ply toilet paper on campus. Spang also wants to encourage Junior and Lower representatives to become more involved in Council meetings because “the Student Council could be more productive with more ideas circulating.” Davison is focusing on pace of life issues. “A large general change of the pace of life may help some, but hinder others,” he said. Because Davison’s experience as an Upper Representative has changed his perspective about the Council’s power, he does not plan to enter the presidency with false hopes. He said, “[as a council,] we are limited in what we are able to achieve, but not in what we are able to pursue.” The potential candidates also include students who have had past Council experience, but do not currently serve on the Council. Natasha Midgley ’05, previously a Junior Representative, feels that her campaign and her ideas have changed since her freshman year. She said, “I was more oriented towards class unification. Now, it’s more about policy and keeping Andover the way it was when we got to the school.” Midgley plans to focus her attention on creating a day student parking lot, allowing deliveries on campus after 10 p.m., starting a student center, and scheduling more buses to Boston. Yusuke Uchiyama ’05, also a former Junior Representative, has constructed a website (http://www.votesuke.com) containing detailed information about his platform, which he has divided three categories: academics, athletics/clubs, and social. Uchiyama’s proposals include re-evaluation of diploma requirements, creation of a program to replace the loan library, and construction of a Student Council website. He advocates a website because “Student Council should be obligated to report everything they propose in their [unintentionally, but apparently] secretive meetings.” Uchiyama also has strong feelings about the recently imposed fitness center restriction that prevents students in sports other than basics from using the fitness center at certain times. On his website, Uchiyama explains that the option to “slide,” for Uppers and Seniors who do not want to do a sport for a term, was implemented on the condition that sliders maintain individual fitness. “With the weight room closed to sliders during the most convenient hours to work out, the Athletic Department policy is seemingly mired in hypocrisy,” he argues. Though February 11, the date of the first round of elections, is approaching quickly, students say the election is unpredictable. According to candidate Morissa Sobelson ’05, “There is a tremendous number of candidates running for school president, all of whom bring a variety of talent, leadership skills, and vision for the upcoming school year, so, at this point, it’s very hard to tell exactly how things are going to play out.” As of Wednesday, the following students were interested in running for Student Government President: Peter Accomando, Dan Adler, Elliot Beck, Franklin Davison, Billy Doyle, Anthony Green Dan Hackney, Catherine Hambleton, Mac King, Natasha Midgely, Laura Sciuto, Nate Scott, Lauren Seno, Steve Sherrill, Morissa Sobelson, Bobby Spang, Yusuke Uchiyama, Christian Vareika, Neville Williams, Grant Yoshitsu, and Chris Zegel Student Government Secretary Anthony Reyes ’05 predicts that the number of candidates will decrease by next week, when each candidate must submit 500 signatures and a platform to Student Government Vice-President Sam Levenback ’04.
