Some brighter, flashier colors have joined the early autumn foliage around campus this week: hot pink, neon green and fluorescent yellow, among others. With polls for freshmen elections opening tomorrow, many dormitories are filled with colorful campaign posters publicizing the names of the 51 freshmen running for positions on the Undergraduate Assembly and the Freshman Class Board. Many of these posters feature the faces of cartoon characters, film actors and sports celebrities, in addition to such catchy slogans as: "Alex Abrams wears khakis: Vote Alex Abrams for Undergraduate Assembly." "Vote Rishi for UA: He won't go to meetings drunk? often." "Coed-Naked Voting? It's Better in Meghan's Box." But the posters have left many freshmen wondering what exactly the candidates stand for. College freshman Alex Petrovitch said he is basing his vote on "the creativity" in all the campaign posters. "You only know so many of the people running," he said. "I guess you vote for who you know, and the rest are all [based] just on the campaign posters." Lisa Krantz, a College freshman running for the UA, hopes to "catch people's eyes" with her campaign's Trainspotting theme. "As far as I saw, people weren't really concerned with what your platform is," Krantz said. "I don't see a way that all the candidates could develop a really set platform, because they don't know what's really expected from them on the UA." Other freshmen echoed her views. "We're just freshmen. We just got here," College freshman Mohammed Naqvi said. "We don't really know what the issues are." Chris LaVigne, chairperson of the Nominations and Elections Committee, said he believes candidates are only aware of the more superficial campus issues. "I don't think they've been here long enough to really get a handle on the more kind of complex issues affecting the University, the less obvious -- for example, construction of the Perelman Quadrangle, construction of Sansom Common or funding for fraternity parties," the College senior said. But many candidates stressed that they are very aware of the issues affecting their classmates and the University. "I think a big issue is the frat party funding," said Wharton freshman Michael Germano IV -- whose campaign for the UA is being endorsed by the Stouffer Dining Commons employee known as "the Fly Man." Germano said he favors a GreekCard -- which would entitle anyone who buys the card to enter fraternity parties -- over the alternative idea of raising the General Fee to support parties. He also wants to provide students with more opportunities to contact their UA representatives throughout the year by means of a newsletter or an interactive World Wide Web site. "I'm asking for some suggestions," Germano said. "I have a few ideas of my own. When I'm going around I'm trying to ask people what are their ideas, what are their concerns, what suggestions would they make." Germano has been hanging posters up around the Quad and leaving flyers on the tables at Stouffer. Wharton freshman Nicole Davison, who is also running for the UA, has been going door to door for her campaign. "I tell them who I am and why I'm running and ask them what they'd be looking for in a candidate, what kind of concerns they have," she said. Her platform is based on increasing research opportunities for underclassmen, developing a meal redemption system, improving recreational facilities and increasing communication between students and their UA representatives. She says her campaign -- playing on her ballot No. 6 -- is based on both using gimmicks and building awareness of the issues. "[The] platform is definitely the most important part of campaigning," Davison said. "But since so many people are running and since the freshmen class is so big, it's also important to have an interesting way of getting people's attention." Maria McClay, a College freshman running for class president, already has several potential class events in mind, in addition to ideas for improving facilities and increasing outreach into West Philadelphia. McClay has also been campaigning door to door and hanging posters in freshman dorms, but she has chosen not to describe her plans on her posters. "In a way you can't, because of the fact that? there's not enough room [on the poster] to write them all down," she explained, adding that her favorite campaign slogan quotes the film Ferris Bueller's Day Off. "When you go to the polls you're going to remember a Ferris Bueller poster, you're going to remember a catchy slogan like 'Help pave the way with Maria McClay'," she explained. "You're not going to remember a long list with things they're going to accomplish." The NEC sponsored a forum to meet the candidates last night in Houston Hall. Over two dozen freshmen attended and were able to mingle informally with the candidates. But for those who didn't attend, there are always the campaign posters which -- as Petrovitch insisted -- are sometimes "pretty good."
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