Mason Votes

Students Elect Dasgupta, King

Devraj Dasgupta and Tyler King were announced as the newly elected Student Government president and vice president, respectively, last Thursday.

According to the student government website, Dasgupta and King received 1,534 of the 3,390 votes. Anthony DiCarlo and Krista Muise had the second largest number of votes, 500 behind Dasgupta and King. In total, Dasgupta’s and DiCarlo’s votes totaled 75.75 percent of the overall vote count in the election.

Joshua St. Louis and Amanda Johnson placed third in the election with 450 votes. Lastly, Kyle McDaniel and Jillian Ferron received 255 votes. There were also 117 total write-in votes.

“I’m feeling really excited,” said Dasgupta. “I’m so happy that I get the opportunity to work with the student body. It’s been a long and great experience, and the work doesn’t stop now. It only begins.”

Current Student Government President Zack Golden was optimistic about the election and the results.

“I was very satisfied with the tone and level of discourse with this year’s election,” said Golden. “All of the candidates did a fantastic job of sharing their ideas while remaining positive. I think that Dev and Tyler will do a great job. Their leadership experience in Greek life and athletics will serve them well as president and vice president.”

DiCarlo and Muise were also optimistic of the overall outcome.

“Obviously we’re a little disappointed, but you just want what’s best for the organization, and if that happens to be Dev and Tyler, then that’s great,” said Muise

“I think we ran a really great election campaign and definitely wouldn’t change anything we did, except maybe 500 other people,” said DiCarlo. “Ultimately, as long as students are getting what they’ve been promised and getting results from the organization and student government, then that’s what’s really important . . . We wish them the best of luck and will definitely be keeping a close eye on how things go in student government.”

The elected senators for next year’s student government are: Semhar Abed, Nicola Anderson, D’Leon Barnett, Esha Bhardwaj, Allyson Bowers, Melanie Caldwell, Tiffany Catron, Blaine Darnall, Michael DeMatteo, Thomas Flounders, Lynn Gold, Neha Gulati, Bailey Hall, Patrick Hedger, Justin Herbst, Melissa Jackson, Mhehvish Khan, Maxwell Liffers, Amanda Liverpool-Cummings, Keegan Luczak, Jeremy Miller, James Nance, Miguel Perez, Dominic Pody, Terence Pologe, Alexander Romano, Zack Schneider, Angel Scott, Harry Walker and Zakaria Zerhouni.

For more information and results regarding the elections, visit the student government website at sg.gmu.edu.

By Broadside reporter Ryan Dempsey

Posted on April 20th, 2009 by Aram Zucker-Scharff
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WGMU’s YourTalk Interviews SGA Candidates

WGMU’s YourTalk interviews Candidates Kyle McDaniel, Anthony DiCarlo and Krista Muise (President and Vice Presidential candidates, respectively); and Josh St. Louis.

From http://www.alexanderromano.com :

“Ask anyone who has already listened to the show and they’ll tell you that these are some hard hitting interviewswith some great commentary by Prof. Rodger Smith and I. This is the podcast you MUST listen to before you vote. This campaign can change a lot for the school, or do nothing, but your vote is the one that can decide that.”

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Posted on April 15th, 2009 by Aram Zucker-Scharff
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Profile: Josh and Amanda

Josh St. Lous and Amanda Johnson’s interview with Broadside.

Why are you running for office?

St. Louis: We feel that the student government has become out of touch with the needs of the average student.

Do you have a specific campaign platform?

St. Louis: I really want to make sure people know what Student Government does. I want to create a website just maintained by the executive branch to tell people what we do. I want to increase the Town Hall Initiative. I want to make my office open to everyone, so people can come and tell me their concerns. I want to make a State of the Union Address at the beginning of the second semester. And I want to create an office of an Attorney General, so that students’ rights can be protected and so if they have a complaint they can bring it to that office.

What do you anticipate as being the main responsibilities of office?

St. Louis: The main responsibility of Student Government is to serve the student body population and to advocate their needs. Really, we see the office as being a student’s voice to Dr. Merten and the administration.

What do you see as the most important issue that needs to be addressed by SG, and what is your approach to solving it?

St. Louis: The budget is the most important in terms of what I’ve been to talking about with students. They’re concerned about tuition going up, they’re concerned about housing going up, they’re concerned about food prices going up. And that concern is justifiably so because when we look at our budget and see where money is being spend, students are going to be outraged, which is justifiably so as well. And they really need to see what our university’s priorities are because I feel that once we show that our university is spending money on frivolous things, it’ll be an embarrassment and they will change their minds and spend their money on the students where it belongs.

Posted on April 14th, 2009 by Aram Zucker-Scharff
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Profile: Kyle and Jillian

Kyle McDaniel’s interview with Broadside.

Why are you running for office?

McDaniel: To help people, to help students. Anything that the Student Government can do to ease a little bit of pressure, that’s what we need to be doing. That’s why I’m running.

Do you have a specific campaign platform?

McDaniel: My plan to help all students consists of three key issues. The first issue is controlling spending from the student government, spending money better. The second issue is increasing student representation in student government through informal things like inviting students over to meetings, posting the bills, minutes, and resolutions online, doing electronic newsletters, things like that. The third thing I want to do is be a more effective advocate with the administration. The administration needs to understand that the needs of the students should be coming first and the student government can be the person and the entity to convey that.

What do you anticipate as being the main responsibilities of office?

McDaniel: I think my top responsibility will be to watch out for students, being a watchdog for students, not a lap dog for the administration, if you will.

What do you see as the most important issue that needs to be addressed by SG, and what is your approach to solving it?

McDaniel: There are two things: the spending and the representation. Unfortunately, there seems to be this sentiment that if you want to do anything with Student Government, you have to drop everything to be in Student Government, and that’s not fair. The second thing is going to be the spending within Student Government. A bill was proposed to spend [over $5000] on coffee cups. I don’t agree with that. I don’t agree with giving organizations money to sponsor their events—that is what [the] student funding board is for.

Posted on April 14th, 2009 by Aram Zucker-Scharff
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Profile: Dev and Tyler

Dev Dasgupta and Tyler King’s interview with Broadside.

Why are you running for office?

Dasgupta: I really don’t feel Student Government’s presence on campus. I really want to show students that Student Government can reach out to students and show that we’re working to better a day in the life of a student at Mason.

King: I feel Student Government should be the ones that are being proactive to the students. Coming from the outside, we have a good view of what the students want and need and have an understanding of various issues at the university. Even though we don’t have experience in Student Government, we can come in and be the voice of the students.

Do you have a specific campaign platform?

Dasgupta: We’re running on transparency, outreach, and action. We need to show students what we’re doing, what resolutions were passed, what funding was set for. We need to take action for the students and show them we’re actually working for them.

King: Outreach is our number one goal. It’s going out there and talking with people and trying to get to the bottom of the issues they face and solve their problems.

What do you anticipate as being the main responsibilities of office?

Dasgupta: Our main responsibilities are representing the students and their interests, working with the administration, and trying to reach goals and initiatives that benefit the students in a way that they can see fit and a way that Student Government is here for them.

What do you see as the most important issue that needs to be addressed by SG, and what is your approach to solving it?

Dasgupta: The Mason community needs a Student Government who will actively advocate for them and their interests on behalf of the administration and just work to make Mason that much better.

King: We believe we can go out there and get people involved and bring people in to Student Government to curb the apathy.

Posted on April 14th, 2009 by Aram Zucker-Scharff
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Profile: Anthony and Krista

Anthony DiCarlo and Krista Muise’s interview with Broadside.

Why are you running for office?

DiCarlo: We have a very strong passion for really working to help out students. We just feel like in terms of our experience and in terms of the connections we’ve made, we really know what it takes to get stuff done.

Muise: We want people to be just as proud to be here as we are so we can get other students to feel the same way and have that same Patriot Pride. That’s what it’s all about for us.

Do you have a specific campaign platform?

DiCarlo: Based upon our website, we address the key issues that have been brought up, not just this year, but in years past, you know it’s housing, dining, tuition, parking and really there’s only so much that Student Government can really do to affect those things. The Student Government is really an advocacy group on behalf of students in terms of advocating to the administration, advocating to the BOV.

Muise: Our platform is basically focused on a vision centered around communication and results.

What do you anticipate as being the main responsibilities of office?

DiCarlo: There’s no way that you can really advocate for all students all the time all at once. But, what you really need to do is remember that you are there to serve the students and you yourself are a student. You are in no way shape or form above the students because you are Student Body President. I think that’s our job to make sure that [students are] involved.

What do you see as the most important issue that needs to be addressed by SG, and what is your approach to solving it?

Muise: It all comes down to advertising and transparency of what Student Government does. I think there’s a lot of confusion about what Student Government does only because we haven’t done a good enough job of getting that information out there to students.

DiCarlo: Getting involved in the process is half the battle. To do that, you have to do the marketing.

Posted on April 14th, 2009 by Aram Zucker-Scharff
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