Three Questions: Tim McBride

DADC: Alright, first question – you and your campaign have been very aggressive and tactical with your use of campaign complaints and inquiries, umm, and gone from arguing the letter of the law to the spirit as suits the particular moment, umm – do you think that this kind of antagonistic legal strategy ultimately helps or hurts the students, and how?

TM: Well, I think it more fundamentally goes to the problem with the Student Government elections right now, uh – a lot of the Board of Elections regulations are vague – some are more specific – and in instances  where there’s more vague – when, where they’re, uh, vague, I think more interpretation is required, and then there are some instances where, ah, they’re more specific, and in those instances I think that it’s more appropriate for complaints to be filed, when you know, when you know by just reading it, exactly how that should be interpreted, so – do I think it helps or hurts the student body? I think it helps the student body that we have a fair process – umm – I think what will help the student body more is reforming the process after this is all over.

DADC: Alright – umm, second question – given the recent efforts of the Student Government in trying to promote student participation in local politics and even specifically in supporting local student voter registration drives, uh – why does your proposal for a voter services department only address absentee voting in other parts of the country?

TM: Well, I think it’ll will help within DC too, umm, it’ll certainly have information for re-registering in DC if students  wanna become, ah, local citizens here – umm, however, I think one of the things we learned from the ANC campaign is that there are a lot of students, understandably, who are not willing to re-register, and, umm, and I think that the Student Government shouldn’t be just focused on making sure that we have student voice here, but making sure we have a student voice around the nation. It’s not anything against have a student voice here, it’s just making sure that we’re covering both bases.

DADC: Alright. One more question – and Doug Bell insists that I ask everyone this – ten seconds or less, what would you do for a Klondike bar?

TM: You.

Odds – 2:1

Tags: interviews

Three Questions: Jessica Darmawan

DADC: Umm, okay so first off in your platform you call for a lot of new spending on things like, umm, probably the biggest would be to have this like signature service event and to make  transport free with the AUTO system free for, ah, service – umm, between the new things that you want to spend money on and the kind of standing financial commitments of the presidency in general, umm, do you foresee yourself cutting some of those standing commitments next year, or pushing during the budget process for a bigger SG General budget, umm – where do you kind of see that coming from?

JD: I want to, ah, I made that into my platform because I saw that that was a huge concern for students – students are very passionate, they want to y’know, contribute to the community through service, but this was sort of like deterring them from doing so, because of y’know sort of financial constraints, so I wanted to make sure that that was available for students – for me, the next year, I would like to kind of base my kind of like allocation of resources based on student needs, and that’s why the campuswide student survey comes, is that when you have a better understanding of which initiatives students find really helpful, which could be more improved, which could be more supported, y’know you can better allocate your resources that way. And I don’t think it means you need to increase the budget significantly in that sense, but it’s more of like efficiently allocating resources effectively.

DADC: Okay. That kind of leads into the second question, which is – umm – with the campuswide survey that you want to do, could you give me like an example of like a few of the kind of questions posed or – charts or whatever that might be in there?

JD: Sure, sure. One of the things that students are concerned about is, ah, recently is the add-drop policy, the time limit for add and drop – one of the questions would be like, uh, would you like to keep the add and drop policy the same, or would you like to increase it, or would you like to lessen it, and there would be like options? And then based on that, we can say like, uh, creating a percentage – say, 70% of the students want to keep add and drop policy the same, and so when you negotiate with the faculty senate about this, and when you show that those students are really concerned about it, then y’know it’s a very compelling tool to negotiate to students – to administration. And that’s what’s been successful in the past, when I advocated legislation.

DADC: And this is the question that Doug Bell makes me ask everyone – ten seconds or less, what would you do for a Klondike bar?

JD: I would speak Indonesian, and – I don’t know. Wait, can we do that again?

DADC: Sure.

JD: Please. Klondike bar is the bear, right?

DADC: Right.

JD: I would – I would face my fear of heights and zipline across mountains in Ecuador.

Odds – 3:1

Tags: interviews

Three Questions: Ibraheem Samirah

DADC: In your platform you talk about calling for revisions to the Student Conduct Code, very specifically regarding like alcohol policy – umm – can you kinda talk more specifically about what kinda changes you want to see, and what specific policies in the alcohol section you want to see changed?

IS: The current policy for, uh, the student conduct code part of, the alcohol part of the student conduct policy – is if you get caught on campus drinking, uhh, you and the people around you, in the dorm or wherever you are, get cited the same exact way. I’m trying to change that so that the only person that gets in trouble is the person that, ah ah, holding the alcohol, that is actually doing the alcohol drinking, uhh- you may ask why I would specifically want that – one, it’s unfair that students that aren’t drinking, get caught drinking, umm, get cited as if they were drinking, umm, two – we’re in college, uh, there should be an ease on alcohol drinking, umm, it’s part of college, ah, at AU we take it to extremes, umm – other schools have alcohol drinking on campus, they have wet campuses, and they still function as great universities, umm, many universities to mention that are a lot better than us academically, umm, that have, uh, wet campuses, and um, to request from AU to ease those policies so that – to get with the normal college scene in the United States.

DADC: Alright, umm, you also talk about expanding a shuttle route, so that it can go around to more local housing, umm – and it would cover more area for students, but it would also be a route that would be a lot longer and include a lot more left turns, so – umm – how would you deal with the issues of the route being slower, less reliable, or us having to pay for more buses?

IS: Well we have to keep in mind that once this route is implemented there will be less pressure on all the other routes, uh uh – the pressure on that route specifically will be less – umm, obviously there’s gonna be a lot of stops, but students will realize that if they want to get straight to Tenleytown, they should ride the shuttle that takes you straight to Tenleytown, umm, but if you want to go around and service to the areas of the cathedral, you can ride on that one and that will take you a longer time. It’s simply offering, ah ah, more ways for students to reach the location that they want to reach, obviously the other one is longer, but it services a different part of the city, and ah, students won’t mind spending more time on that shuttle route, because they’re actually getting somewhere they’ve never been able to reach before easily. And, ah, so much more service is on that shuttle route, including Giant, including more competition between housing companies, uh, decreasing prices, which will lead to a decrease in housing prices on-campus, umm – all of these are very important things to keep in mind, that the shuttle will do. I understand that it’s gonna be longer, but it’s not gonna be that longer. I mean, we’re talking about five, six, maybe seven minutes longer? Than the shuttle that takes us straight to Tenleytown? I think it’s a practical idea, it’s something that students will – won’t have a problem with, not when it’s serving a whole different area.

DADC: Alright, one last question – the person who got me my press pass to be in here insisted I ask this – uh, ten seconds or less, what would you do for a Klondike bar?

IS: What would I do for what, sorry?

DADC: For a Klondike bar.

IS: (laughs) For a bar?

DADC: Klondike bar. It’s like an ice cream -

IS: Oh, oh, what I would do? Umm – I would do a lot, I’m so hungry right now. I haven’t eaten all day, I would die for one. Umm, this is very intense, the debate’s gonna be pretty intense today. Umm, earlier today was pretty intense – I loved the questions I received at the town hall, umm – they’re very precise questions, and I look forward to a great debate today.

Odds – 5:1

Tags: interviews

Three (Two) Questions: Joe Schulte

Joe Schulte

DADC: Essentially [...] quick easy questions – first, what does “vote flo, vote joe” mean?

JS: Thank you for that question. Umm, vote flo vote joe – as you may have noticed, I have a little bit of long hair -

DADC: Okay.

JS – it is my flo.

(Passersby: You’ve got some really beautiful hair.)

JS: Thank you, thank you, umm – sorry, what’s your name man?

(Passerby: Matt.)

JS: Matt? I’m Joe, nice to meet you – as Matt just said, apparently I have some nice, beautiful hair. Umm (interrupted here by drawing for place in the studio) …in addition to just my hair, I think it also encompasses a general sentiment I have to kind of go through life, and also, ah, I think a lot of the student body will get behind – it seems like a lot of people always talk about things we need to change, but there’s not a relaxed or kind of enjoyable aspect to it, umm, myself by going with the flow with a lot of things, kinda taking it easy while getting things actually done – usually by being calm and succinct as opposed to angry and, ah, abrasive – gets a lot more things accomplished – and – that’ll be a mainstay of my candidacy, and administration if elected.

DADC: Alright, one more question – and this is cuz the guy who got me the press pass insisted I ask this – what would you do for a Klondike bar – ten seconds or less.

JS: What would I do for a Klondike bar – I would, uh, storm the shores of Montezuma, and – crawl through the barbed wire of Normandy, I would jump into the volcano, y’know, Vesuvius, and after that I would personally go to tavern and go there and listen to the loud rap music all day.

Odds – 15:1

Tags: interviews

Three Questions: Anthony Dunham

DADC: I’m actually going to put down the awkward, not-reading-from-a-script way I ask all the questions – umm – to make up for the indignity to the candidates. So umm – so my first question is. Umm – since you’re kind of running as an experienced candidate, umm – why is your platform so short and inspecific?

AD: Could you repeat the question, I’m sorry.

DADC: Yeah. Since you’re running as the experienced candidate – umm – why is the platform on your facebook page so relatively short and inspecific?

AD: The reason for that is that I want to be able to really develop a – basically a philosophy, a basic overarching structure of what I want my platform to be, and then really work with the cabinet departments, work with the policy directors, in order to formulate the specific goals and initiatives that we’d create. There is – to have a strategic plan, basically, for how I want the administration, and then work with the people that we have on the executive, as well as the executive cabinet, to really develop a more specific strategic plan, umm – that’s kind of the way that I think about leadership in that regard.

DADC: Okay. Umm – also, even though my blog’s readers are all charming and articulate and well-informed and all that, I don’t think a whole bunch of them are as familiar with the RHA as they are with the SG. Can you kind of talk about what specifically you did as the RHA VP of Advocacy – or whatever that specific title was? In terms of kind of external issue-advocacy type things?

AD: Yeah, umm, the Residence Hall Association Vice President of Advocacy and Community Coordination basically works within the organization to coordinate advocacy, to coordinate the resolutions process and manage the committee process, and then works with a committee of other hall council based vice presidents of advocacy to discuss those issues, weed out some of the extraneous, or send to SG the more extra-jurisdictional issues, and we also work to invite speakers to talk about some of the issues and really coordinate with them – we worked with Sophia Benedicktus of Housing and Dining, then-President Andy MacCracken on gender-neutral housing – basically my job was to coordinate internally the advocacy processes of the Residence Hall Association, and then allow the President to focus on the external, face and spokespersonship of the Residence Hall Association.

DADC: One last question – Doug Bell got me a press pass and this was the question he submitted, so I feel obligated to ask – ten seconds or less, what would you do for a Klondike bar?

AD: Jump to the moon and back.

Odds: 5:1

Tags: interviews

Three Questions: Zach Lancet

Zach Lancet

DADC: When you say on your facebook page, it’s time for ‘student government to work for the students and not for the administration,’ what does that mean concretely – what would be the very real differences in your administration and maybe earlier ones, kind of as regards that phrase?

ZL: Okay, yeah, that’s a fair question, I’m glad you asked, gives me a chance to explain – what I mean is that Student Government – at the end of the day, every student here pays forty or fifty thousand dollars to go here, and we need to push major initiatives that support the students, whether it’s expanding the shuttle bus, combining the smartrip with the id’s, or even dealing with the noise ordinances – when I came here as a freshmen, I though ‘eh, AU Student Government, I don’t know a ton about them, the KPU’s effective – but the Student Government has not worked for the students – what I mean is putting students first, not dealing with the administration first, not dealing with President Kerwin, not the community, but listening to the voice of the students – my job is to be an advocate for the students – that’s exactly what I’ll do, and that’s what I mean by not dealing with the administration first, the students come first, and all these policies I have are difficult to do – but that’s exactly why we’re doing them, so it’s not the status quo.

DADC: Okay. Well that kind of leads into the second question, which I will admit is a little bit – tricks you into a bad premise, but – bear with it – given that a lot of your initiatives are very ambitious and it seems at very least from the past that oftentimes initiatives can take a while to implement – why should a student vote for someone who’s saying – I’m not going to serve my full term?

ZL: Well, like any question, I’m saying if I’m unable to accomplish several of these initiatives by the end of the fall semester I will resign. That’s how confident I am. What I think Student Government needs is some fresh blood. It seems like every year it’s the same people, whether an endorsement meeting – it just seems like Student Government tends to push who they want the next presidential candidate to be – I was in several endorsements and the president, Nate Bronstein, was there, and the secretary, Kent Hiebel (pronounced Hy-bul here) was there, just seems like – I’m just tired of the cronyism – and like I said, yes, I will resign if I’m unable to accomplish these things, I feel like people need to be held accountable to what they say and that’s exactly what I’m doing, and it’s not being a quitter – because I don’t think I’m gonna have to resign.

DADC: Alright. One last question – and this is cuz this was a question that was submitted to my blog by Doug Bell, who got me this press pass – umm – what would you do for a Klondike bar? Ten seconds or less.

ZL: (sighs) I would do a lot for a Klondike bar. I think I would uh – hmm – I don’t know what I’d do for a Klondike bar – I’m not a huge Klondike bar fan to be honest.

Odds – 30:1

Tags: interviews

Me, You, and the 2011 Spring SG Debate

Hey folks.

This blog has become a kind of irregular project, but I still enjoy it. I don’t plan to blog a whole bunch about this election until it’s over to avoid conflicts of interest, but I am apparently a member of the press and I get to ask the candidates questions before they go on TV.

I’m hoping to ask a question or two of all the candidates, and I’d like some help. If anyone can get me a question before Sunday at 9 pm – in a comment, an email, telling it to my face, whatever – I’ll strongly consider asking it, though there’ll obviously be constraints on how many I can use.

This seems to me like a good opportunity to get answers to longer, more obscure, or more basically geeky questions than are going to get much time during the debate or in the Eagle. I’ll repost all their answers in full.