I t's election time for the executive board of Penn's student government, and only one person wants the top job. But at least that person is Brett Thalmann. Thalmann, the sole candidate for the chairmanship, has only been a member of the Undergraduate Assembly for a single year. But in that year, he has demonstrated leadership and a knack for working on issues that matter to the student body.
Thalmann was a major force behind the UA's widely popular airport bus during school breaks and the freshman-concentrated housing proposal. In addition, there seems to be little question of the respect held for Thalmann by his colleagues: He was elected to the group's executive board as a first-time UA member.
Though UA members have little choice in whether or not to select Thalmann as their next leader, we feel confident that he will serve as a good successor to outgoing-Chairwoman Rachel Fersh. Furthermore, Thalmann's goals will be a good fit for an organization that sometimes wanders out of the realm of relevancy.
"There isn't a point in devoting our time to projects that will have little impact on students," Thalmann told us in an interview.
Yet, while The Daily Pennsylvanian is confident in the prospect of Thalmann's leadership over the coming year, his unopposed candidacy gives us reason for concern. The UA has had a major problem in attracting enough candidates to compete for positions, and the fact that only one person is running for the chairmanship is symptomatic of this problem. In the most recent UA and class board elections, 62 candidates ran for 51 positions. Making matters worse, 38 of those candidates were incumbents -- and all but five of them won.
One of Thalmann's major goals for the coming year should be to work on simply attracting more candidates for the job -- including the chairmanship. If he's successful, this would only serve to improve the quality of the student government's membership.
If the UA can surround him with an executive board that can complement his leadership with institutional knowledge and experience, the student government has the potential to achieve success in its next term.
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