Candidates for Class of 2008 president debate

Class of 2008 presidential candidates Grant Gittlin, Tom Haine and Aaron Spolin expressed confidence in their own abilities to lead the senior class next year but disagreed on how an ideal class president should act, in a debate sponsored by the USG in Frist Campus Center last night.

The debate quickly developed into a contentious discussion as the candidates responded to a question by audience member Michael Noveck '08 about how their past leadership experiences would influence their performance as president.

Gittlin, the current '08 class president, said that the office "is not about being a leader necessarily, but about supporting and organizing your class."

Spolin retorted that the Class of 2008 needs more active leadership, in addition to a greater number of social activities. "My experience has shown me the importance of not just sitting back, it's about more than support," Spolin said, citing his leadership roles as 2005-06 president of the American Whig-Cliosophic Society, president of the Pre-Law Society and coordinator for the 2007 Princeton-in-Washington program.

While Haine admitted to having few leadership experiences, he is willing to "lower his GPA" to personally sacrifice for the position next year. Haine said he wants to promote class unity for a highly involved senior year.

"I think we deserve a really active year and hope to end the year with a blast," Haine said.

The debate between candidates for senior class presidents this year was an unusual occurrence because in past years the incumbent junior class president has often run unopposed for the position.

During the three-minute introduction afforded to the candidates, Gittlin said he also hopes to "bring students together" as Class of 2008 president. Gittlin spent a portion of his time circulating through the audience, personally introducing himself to members of his class.

Gittlin said he and the other '08 class officers "have tried to encourage our class to get to know each other," referring to such past events as class name-tag day, where juniors were given prizes for continuing to wear the name-tags.

Candidates went on to announce their specific plans for the upcoming year. Spolin began with his intentions to begin a career profile guide to expose students to less commonly known career options, promote student-alumni events involving minority experiences and include more students in class government by expanding committees to plan graduation, among other things.

"We should allow anybody who wants to be involved in student government to have a chance," Spolin said.

Gittlin assailed these proposals, charging that the goals of the Spolin's proposed career guide had already been fulfilled through career fairs, and relations with alumni had been strengthened through events Gittlin helped organize over the past three years. The most important factor, Gittlin said, was being able to follow through on the efforts proposed.

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"The unbelievable red tape everyone will encounter, me and my officers have already been through, and it will not affect our job," Gittlin said.

Haine said he hoped to introduce more dynamic events, like a class-wide effort to break a world record — such as the world's largest pillow fight — to "engender a sense of unity" while fostering a sense of excitement.

"Senior year is a whole new ball game; I've always looked up to the senior class [in past years] and said 'wow,' " Haine said.

The debate between Haine, Gittlin and Spolin, along with subsequent debates amongst presidential candidates for the classes of 2009 and 2010, were moderated by Class of 2007 president Jim Williamson. The event and the preceding study break were organized by the USG and supervised by USG president Rob Biederman '08.

"I'm greatly confident that all of them would do a good job," Biederman said. "I think what came out of the debates is that they each had very different goals."

Associate Dean of Undergraduate Students Thomas Dunne, who works closely with the USG, said he was concerned about whether all the candidates running in the upcoming election understood the nature of the offices contested.

"Unless people have been involved in these kinds of activities beforehand, they don't see the nitty-gritty of these roles," Dunne said.

Despite this, Dunne also said he is pleased with the renewed interest in student government. "Of the students I've talked to about the elections, they have been glad to have more people running, other possibilities from which to choose."