The list of Student Council presidential candidates was whittled down from eighteen to twelve after the first round of voting this past Sunday. Chris Batchelder ’11, Chris Calkins ’11, Manwei Chan ’11, Ijeoma Ejiogu ’11, Karl Hardin ’11, Jeremy Hutton ’11, Hector Kilgoe ’11, Jackie Lender ’11, Michael MacKay ’11, Ricky Marcotte ’11, Kate Wiener ’11 and Patrick Wolber ’11 are the twelve remaining Uppers in the race. The candidates must consider a new proposal to institute a co-presidency. Paul Murphy, Dean of Students and Residential Life, has suggested this solution in order to split the numerous tasks that a presidency entails. Calkins said, “I think that the solution is far more simple than creating co-presidents. All that would be necessary would be to make the positions of Vice President and Executive Secretary positions that hold greater responsibility.” Ejiogu said, “I can see [Mr. Murphy’s] idea working to alleviate the stress of running for the position of president.” However, Ejiogu is unsure of how this might affect the Vice President and Executive Secretary positions. Hardin said that his only worry is “some form of power struggle between the two” and Mackay agreed, saying that a joint leadership is “unnecessary”. Batchelder attributes his success to the support from the relationships he has developed with voters through the campaign process. “I [am] do[ing] everything I can for the students at this stage in the presidential race, whether it’s making them laugh or sitting down with new acquaintances and discussing issues they would like to see addressed,” said Batchelder. Hutton’s platform includes a plan to send school-wide emails after Student Council meetings, informing the community of the topics of discussion. Mackay plans on instituting bike rentals for Andover students and bringing online textbooks to campus. Lender and Hardin are focusing on wireless Internet and printing, while Calkins, Ejiogu and Wiener push for continuous dining in Commons. Student voice is central to Wolber’s platform. He is adamant about bringing power to the student body and plans to “add a system or forum in which individual students can come forward and call on teachers to address what they believe could be a flaw in the teacher’s style.” He believes that this “may help clarify something a student doesn’t understand.” For the next step in the campaign process, each of the twelve candidates must create a one-minute campaign video. Until the videos are released, the most popular way of self-promotion is through posters. The twelve candidates have already plastered their posters all around campus in hopes that their catchy slogans and smiles would win over votes. Some contenders had other means of attracting voters. Calkins said, “I decided to go low key for the first round, so that people could focus on getting to know my face rather than how funny my poster was. I plan on including a little more comedy in the next [round of campaigning].” Although the twelve candidates foresee many more days of campaigning and getting to know their fellow students, others are unable to continue campaigning. Charlotte Cleveland ’11, who did not advance to the next round, said, “I am extremely confident that all of the selected candidates will do a good job in representing the school. The whole concept of putting my ideas out there was to get other people thinking about the possible changes for next year.” Renat Zalov ’11 said that although he is disappointed about not making it past the first round of elections, he is glad that some of the candidates such as Chan are addressing the same issues he brought to the table. “I think that many candidates agree with me that Andover needs to become a greener place… I will continue to support the presidential campaign, and do my part as an Andover student to vote,” said Zalov. School President Faiyad Ahmad ’10 said, “The elections are going great, all the candidates are definitely putting a lot of time and energy into their campaigns.” He also said that students should look out for candidates addressing campus issues in their one-minute videos, which will be posted on PAnet this week. Ahmad hopes that the “candidates will begin to address some of their topics more in depth” once the videos are presented. The second round of voting will be on February 16, where the candidates will be carved down to six. On February 22, Philomathean Society, the on-campus debate club, will be hosting the presidential debates.
