President: Joe Vidulich
Unlike the endorsements for the other positions, the endorsement for president was not necessarily an easy one to make. Voters are presented with three options: one mostly joke candidate, a write-in candidate who means well but doesn't come close to having enough experience and someone deeply entrenched in the SG. Vidulich is the least of these evils, and does have some good, promising ideas.
Ben Dwertman is running on a platform that is 90 percent joke. "Hoyas of mass destruction" sent from Georgetown to blow up Mary Graydon Center? Catching Dr. V? Unlikely. Even Dwertman admits that he has little experience and doesn't expect to win. In reality, though, Dwertman does have a few good ideas. Reforming AU e-mail and making all syllabi available online before registration are actually really good ideas that would benefit the student body. Unfortunately, Dwertman chose to present those ideas in a way that makes students completely unable to trust his leadership.
John Eric Lingat is energetic, but seems too naive to successfully fill the position. Leadership roles as an RA and secretary of a fraternity aren't sufficient learning experience to become SG president. He describes himself as someone who usually takes a background leadership role, which isn't the type of person who should be the figurehead of a 6,000-person undergraduate student body. He doesn't seem to have any concrete ideas outside of bringing back freshman beanie day, and we're pretty sure there's a good reason that tradition died.
On the surface, Vidulich is everything an SG president should be. He loves AU, has loads of experience working with both students and university administrators and runs on a very concrete platform. He also lived up to his promise to use his past year after losing in last year's SG president race working to improve AU through his work with the Blue Crew.
Some have reservations about someone with his personality type, particularly his communication abilities, in the position. His interpersonal skills may need some work. Nonetheless, he purports to understand the importance of being open and available to address concerns and communicate with all student media outlets, which is a positive thing.
Unfortunately, there can't be a president like Kyle Taylor every year. As long as Vidulich keeps his ego in check and reaches out to members of the campus community, he should serve the SG well.
Vice President: Jeff Hanley
Hanley is running completely unopposed from either write-in or regular candidates. He seems to have some good ideas about pooling money for programming, particularly with organizations like AU After Dark and the Health Center that are traditionally out of the student programming scene. His experience as president of the RHA, particularly getting the group out last year's debt, should serve as a good base.
Despite his experience and ideas, Hanley may suffer from the same communication deficiencies as Vidulich. Some who have worked with Hanley in RHA say he is difficult to get a hold of when needed.
If Hanley takes these concerns to heart and works to improve communication within the SG and with outside groups, he should do a fine job.
Secretary: Alex Manzanares
The Senate couldn't have waived the credit requirement for a better candidate. Manzanares is organized, experienced and enthusiastic. He earned near-unanimous support from The Eagle editorial board.
Manzanares was the only SG executive candidate to present the board with a written platform. Particularly important are his ideas for archiving SG data, as well as making easily available contact information for all senators and specific data about SG projects. Students will have greater opportunity to have an informed voice in the SG if such data is available.
Despite only having been at AU for a year, Manzanares has a surprising amount of experience. He increased involvement at the 72-Hour Film Festival, which he organized. He is a mentor at the Office of Multicultural Affairs and was partly responsible for organizing students to get the low-flow showerheads changed. He has experience with the SG without being so entrenched in the organization that he can't see the light outside.
Most importantly, his enthusiasm is almost electric. It's clear he loves AU and will be completely devoted to the position.
Furthermore, Manzanares would increase diversity among SG executives as he is gay and Hispanic, both underrepresented groups among SG execs in the past. He should be an excellent advocate for all student constituencies.
Comptroller: David Teslicko
Despite being unopposed, Teslicko gets The Eagle's endorsement for comptroller for the second year in a row (he earned our support last year as a write-in candidate, but lost the election).
He has worked for a year-and-a-half in the comptroller's office as AUTO commissioner and won rave reviews in that capacity.
In addition to experience, Teslicko brings some great ideas to the position as well. In light of the recent NCOR funding issue, his ideas for increasing transparency in the allocation of AUCC funds is particularly timely. Additionally, he plans to streamline bylaw requirements for executive time sheet reports, teach clubs how to better use their money and increase SG budget transparency by making it available online.
The combination of Teslicko's ideas and experience make him an absolutely outstanding candidate for the job. We expect nothing but great things from him in this position.
