Each year, The Eagle endorses four Studen Confederation candidates, one for each of the positions of secretary, comptroller, vice president and president. This year, unlike previous years, was exceptionally difficult. With that in mind, The Eagle feels that while the majority of candidates are qualified for their respective jobs, our endorsement would do the best jobs, especially if all the endorsed candidates work together.
Secretary: Jamie Rea While it was very hard to pick between Jamie Rea and Iwona Rusek, The Eagle believes that Rea is better equipped to be secretary next year. She is very knowledgeable about the SC, its workings, its people and what it takes to be an effective secretary. We were particularly impressed with her ideas about redesigning the SC Web site, reinvigorating freshman orientation and making a commitment to being available to students by attending many events at AU. But what won us over the most was her confidence and outgoing personality, which are the qualities we like to see in our secretaries. We would also like to note that we were very impressed with Iwona Rusek as well. She had many of the same ideas as Jamie and could be a great asset to the SC. If Rea wants to be an effective secretary next year, then she would do well to appoint Rusek as an adviser.
Comptroller: Moamar Tidjani This position was also difficult to decide. Moamar Tidjani and Will Prouty are both smart and dedicated public servants who have served AU well in their respective capacities as vice president of the Kogod Investing Fund and AU Transit Organization. The Eagle believes that either would make a fine comptroller. But what differentiates Tidjani from Prouty are ideas. As AUTO commissioner and Letts Hall comptroller, Prouty certainly has a lot of experience, but he is a little vague about what he plans to do next year. Tidjani, however, was very specific and had many good ideas about fundraising and careful spending. One of his most notable promises is to not unexplicably give $20,000 to the AU Club Council without asking the AUCC chair if he needs it.
Vice President: Jason Trombley The Eagle believes that Jason Trombley has the necessary experience and integrity to be AU's next vice president. As a result of his job as chair of the Programmatic Review Board, he has proven that he has the enthusiasm and ideas to be vice president. Matt Merry was also a strong choice, but what ultimately stopped us from endorsing him was his lack of knowledge about programming and his conviction that this year has been lousy for programming. On the contrary, this has been one of our most successful years: We "Philled" Bender several times, Talib Kweli brought out almost 1,000 fans, and school spirit is on the rise. The Eagle is confident that Trombley can keep that trend going.
President: Polson Kanneth Since this is the most important position, The Eagle would like to briefly discuss why we didn't pick each candidate and instead chose to endorse Polson Kanneth. "Big" Steve Gilbert is a fun, gregarious guy who won us over with his enthusiasm and surprisingly thorough knowledge about the SC. It's completely obvious that he has applied the lessons he's learned as a Kogod student into his leadership and management style. However, if he wants to be president, he needs more experience in the SC. John Lancelot was also a good candidate with an interesting background as a pilot. Unfortunately, although he was very knowledgeable about history and politics, he didn't know much about AU history and politics. More importantly, it wasn't very clear why he was running. Matt Miller didn't know very much about the SC, and even though he ran on a populist platform, his knowledge about the SC, as well as his ideas, was thin. However, his "pride" message was inspiring and is a worthwhile goal. Whoever becomes vice president should consider him for Eagle Nights director. While we expected Will Mount to have a lot of knowledge and good ideas given his experience as a General Assembly member, many of his ideas were idealistic and without consideration about how many thousands of dollars (and minds) it would take to destroy part of Mary Graydon Center and put up an arcade. Which brings us to our choice for president... Polson Kanneth is a hardworking, dedicated servant of Leonard Hall. We believe that his experience and enthusiasm are key elements that will make him a successful president. Unlike the other candidates, he is not running on a "no politics as usual" platform. Rather, he stresses a good relationship with the administration and communication on thorny issues such as tuition increases and parking problems. With a good attitude, good connections and a nice demeanor, we believe that Kanneth is the best choice for president next year.
