Special STUDENT ASSEMBLY Election issue
Vol. 101, Iss. 39 | Tuesday, March 20, 2012
The Flat Hat The Twice-Weekly Student Newspaper
of The College of William and Mary
Flathatnews.com | Follow us:
STudent assembly
SA Presidential candidates take the stage 1. Dallen McNerney
2.Andrew Canakis
3.Curt Mills
4. Grace Colby
5. David Alpert
6. Noah Kim
&Stacey LaRiviere
&Andrew Salamone
&Alyssa Zhu
1.
&Meghan Moore
2.
by ARIEL COHEN Flat hat assoc. news editor
He swears it’s not a campaign tactic. Student Assembly presidential candidate David Allen McNerney ‘14, better known as Dallen, really has had green and gold braces his entire time at the College of William and Mary. Self-described “TWAMPs at heart,” McNerney and his runningmate Stacey LaRiviere ’14, have been involved with SA since freshman year, most recently with McNerney serving as a Class of 2014 Senator and LaRiviere as the Undersecretary to Public Affairs. “We’ve both been on Student Assembly long enough to really understand what is going on, yet not so far into it that we’re jaded and don’t understand all the problems. We see that there are a lot of changes that we can make,” McNerney said. Although McNerney and LaRiviere represent the only allsophomore ticket, they also boast four years of active SA participation. “Even though we’re both sophomores, we have a lot of collective experience and can support each other. Also, we will have time to sustain the changes and new policies after our term by working with those who follow us,” McNerney said. Increased transparency and accessibility between the SA and the student body serve as the driving point behind McNerney and
By ellie kaufman Flat hat chief staff writer
“Celebrate the experience” is the phrase emboldening the campaign of Grace Colby ’13 and Alyssa Zhou ’14 for Student Assembly president and vice president, respectively. By posting campaign flyers and Facebook updates to their website, Colby and Zhou have spread their belief that a focus on students enjoying their time at the College of William and Mary is the best way to improve the community overall. “Our overarching thing is just celebrating who we are and making everybody work toward a happier and healthier campus,” Colby said. “I don’t think you can ever guarantee that a campaign promise will be turned into a reality. The only guarantee I can make is that I genuinely care about this place, and I genuinely want to make this place a better place for students.” Through the creation of a peer counseling program on campus and a step-by-step breakdown of the SA budget, among other initiatives, Colby and Zhou hope to better student life on campus. “The SA is the governing body, and they have all of these resources that students can have,” Zhou said. “I want to make sure that students have all of the opportunities to make sure that everyone gets that feeling of home when they come here and to make sure they are truly enjoying their time at William and Mary.”
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Today’s Weather
Stormy High 79, Low 54
all photos by anita jiang / THE FLAT HAT
3.
by BAILEY KIRKPATRICK Flat hat assoc. Variety editor
See canakis, page 3
by CHASE HOPKINS Flat hat assoc. news editor
To some, student body disillusionment has been the major issue that the Student Assembly has had to tackle in recent years, and it is exactly this sentiment that Curt Mills ’13 and Melanie Levine ’13 use as a jumping-off point in their campaign for SA president and vice president, respectively. Driven by the desire to represent their peers better by changing the students’ body politic, Mills and Levine invoke change as the major grounding point to their campaign. “We are running to change the organization,” Mills said. “Make no mistake, we are running to reform the organization.” The Mills and Levine campaign sees mismanaged and underutilized funds controlled by the SA as a priority for change. The SA is funded through student activities fees levied on every student at the College of William and Mary, totaling approximately $634,800 for the 2011-2012 academic year. “The organization has gone a long way in the past two years in improving its image, its branding and achieving a lot of what it is supposed to do,” Mills said. “But the SA is accomplishing very little compared to what it was doing two or three years ago. … There is plenty of money to go around; the Senate runs a surplus.”
More interviews with the candidates at
See mills, page 3
FLATHATNEWS.COM
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by CHRIS McKENNA Flat hat CHIEF STAFF WRITER
by meredith ramey Flat hat assoc. news editor
David Alpert ’13 and Meghan Moore ’13 say that they are looking to run a more grown-up campaign. “There’s this really big temptation of political campaigns of any size to promise the moon,” Alpert said. “Our whole perspective is to make this a mature, adult campaign.” In light of this, Alpert and Moore say they aren’t going to make promises for sweeping changes, but instead focus on a number of goals that they believe will improve the College of William and Mary as a whole. Alpert and Moore have dubbed these goals their “Top Ten List.” The list, which technically includes 11 items since number nine is broken into two subsections, makes up the foundation of their platform. Objectives include the creation of “Tribeline,” a confidential mental health helpline manned by students to offer support for their classmates. “There’s a way that peers can relate to peers about the William and Mary experience,” Alpert said. “Mental health is something that I think this campus really needs to step [it] up on.” Tribeline would offer a late-night opportunity to talk to fellow
Noah Kim ’13 and Sky Sprayberry ’15 believe their blend of experience and fresh perspective is necessary to “take back your Student Assembly.” Kim currently chairs the SA Senate, where he wrote more than 40 percent of the legislation this session. Serving as chair of the Finance Committee in the past academic year, Kim also has served as a senator since his start at the College of William and Mary. Sprayberry currently serves as the Class of 2015 Vice President of Social Affairs, yet describes her freshman status as an opportunity to initiate change and innovation in the SA. “Some people might be jaded by the organization because they’ve been in it for so long. ... They find it harder to want to change it,” Sprayberry said. “I bring a new eye to look over [the system].” Kim agreed, stating that the SA needs to change in order to serve College students more effectively. “I’ve been in this for three years, so I’ve built up the experience base, but what the SA needs more than anything else is a fresh perspective,” Kim said. “We have this unique balance of strong experience and strong new vision, and that’s what’s going to turn this SA around.” For Kim and Sprayberry, the first step lies with increasing the
See Alpert, page 3
See kim, page 3
See Colby, page 3
Index News Insight News Opinions Sports Sports Variety Variety
&Sky Sprayberry
“Shake ‘N Bake,” an inseparable senior pair also known as Andrew Canakis ’14 and Andrew Salamone ’14, are in the running for Student Assembly president and vice president, respectively, with the intent of doing just what their slogan implies: shaking up the SA. Roommates and friends for the past three years, the Andrews know each other very well. They collectively decided that their main goal is to bring a new spin to campaigning at the College of William and Mary, adding in new ideas and techniques that they believe to be absent from the usual campaigns. “We have a really great connection. Other candidates may be picking people to run with them that they have just met, but we [Andrew and I] have a real sincere relationship,” Canakis said. “We want to bring something new to campus that hasn’t happened here yet.” Among their various plans for change, the Canakis-Salamone campaign advocates for the start of a fall philanthropy event, sponsored by the SA, along the lines of an ‘Amazing Race’ College edition. They
See mcnerney, page 3
4.
&Melanie Levine
Inside opinions
Voting psychology
As Student Assembly elections approach, students must be sure to cast their votes based solely upon the issues at hand. page 4
Inside SPORTS
Tribe sweeps JMU on the road
The College won a series with JMU for the first time since 2005, sweeping the Dukes in Harrisonburg for the first time ever behind dominant pitching. page 5