Monday, March 9, the candidates for the USGA elections were formally introduced in the Bartels Programming Space. Current USGA President, Richard Rotella, hosted and brought a lighthearted attitude to the event.
Rotella opened the event and introduced every candidate: three for Presidential, one for Treasurer and 26 for the 23 Senatorial Positions. Each candidate that was present was given the opportunity to stand up to put a face to the name.
After everyone was introduced, Rotella opened up the floor for questions and for any of the candidates to say a little bit about themselves if they wanted to. Most of the candidates said something and asked each other and answered questions. It was an informal way to get to know who the candidates are; some are repeaters and some are new, but they gave reasons why some people want to continue on in USGA against the reasons that the new people want to be involved.
There are 26 candidates for the 23 Senate positions, so as Rotella said, “It will be a real competition this year.”
The candidates for Senate are: Benjamin Atwater, Kellie Bundschuh, Thomas Coby, Mathew Chrusz, Daniel Chudy, Joseph Delayo, Nicholas Demko, Kelly Dowd, Steven Gillette, John Houllahan, Benjamin Laplante, Seamus Mahon, David Marucheau, Samantha Moul, Nicholas Mroczka, Timothy Muyano, Virginia Paino, Stephanie Palermo, Christopher Sang, Melina Singer, Rachel Spotts, Michael Swift, Mark Sylvester, Jerome Ware, Daniel Waterman, and Nathan Zuba.
Annalisa Berardinelli, who is currently Assistant Treasurer under John Foti, is running unopposed for USGA Treasurer, but she does need 51 percent of the votes to win so the position will not be handed to her.
James Kielar, Kayla Wallace, and Colin Weber are all running for USGA President.
The group of candidates all seemed to be familiar with each other, for the most part; whether they are in USGA together or are in various sororities and fraternities, they seemed to make it more comfortable for each other by just being themselves and joking with each other but also asking each other thought-provoking questions.
One question that was posed for all candidates to answer was whether Greek Life has a positive or negative effect on USGA since so many of the leaders are parts of Greek Life. A few people were able to answer this question as their turns came about but some of the answers that stuck out were that Greek Life has a positive effect on USGA because the Senators bring the voice of the campus as a whole so they need to be unbiased and separate the needs of their organization from the needs of the campus. Another person said it made her proud to have so many members of Greek Life as part of USGA because it shows that leaders do come out of Greek organizations.
The night was a success and the more visibility the candidates have the more information the campus will have to make informed decisions. Make sure to go to all the election events!
