Freshman candidates campaign for votes

Wearing everything from handmade T-shirts to flyers to nothing except a pair of pants and a campaign slogan written on their skin, the freshman student government candidates met with potential voters last night.

The Nominations and Elections Committee held a Midnight Breakfast event to "Get Out the Vote" and kick off a week of freshman elections -- which begins today and ends next Tuesday.

In 57-degree weather at Wynn Commons, nearly 300 freshmen mingled over bagels, doughnuts, orange juice and ice cream to learn more about their classmates who are running for the Undergraduate Assembly and Freshman Class Board.

"I thought the communal atmosphere at this event was a good way for the students to meet their candidates in an informal setting," said College freshman Tony Inguaggiato, a UA and Class Board vice presidential candidate.

Wearing a Superman T-shirt with a garbage bag as a cape, and carrying a stuffed cow as his sidekick, Inguaggiato explained that he wants to run for student government to help the "freshman class get a great start to their Penn careers."

If elected, he hopes to work on getting Wawa and Freshgrocer to accept Dining Dollars.

College freshman Shakirah Simley also showed a focused platform for her campaign.

Using the slogan, "Shak's got your back," the UA candidate explained her feelings about some of the issues she hopes to deal with, if elected.

"The laundry situation [in the dormitories] is terrible and needs to be fixed," she said. "The washers and dryers don't always work, and they are overpriced."

UA candidate and College freshman Brendan Darrow agreed that this is a problem and also felt that the locked bathroom doors in the Quadrangle are a major concern.

Some candidates chose not to address any specific issues, however.

Wharton and Engineering freshman Cristina Col¢n said that she is running for UA to "make sure things get done," as she hopes to represent her constituents' concerns and serve as a "bridge between the administration and the students."

Despite the NEC's efforts, many attendees did not find this event helpful in addressing their upcoming decision on which candidates they should choose.

"I wish I would have gotten some more serious information," Wharton freshman Theresa Hagel said. "I am as undecided on voting as I was before."

"This event is not a bad idea, though," she added.

NEC Vice Chairwoman for Elections and College senior Rochelle Behrens mentioned that the venue may have caused problems for the event.

"Because the forum was shifted to outside," she said, "we were technologically constrained from doing many of the activities we had planned," noting that the NEC previously scrapped the ideas of allowing UTV to televise the event and holding mini-debates between the candidates.

Nevertheless, some candidates felt that the event served the purpose of meeting the voters.

"I think this event was the next best thing to actually getting to know people well," said College freshman Jon Cho, a UA and Class Board vice presidential candidate.

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