ND student government campaign begins today
By ERIN LaRUFFA
Associate News Editor
When Notre Dame students wake up on Saturday morning, they may notice something new on the walls of their dorms: campaign posters for the upcoming campus-wide election.
The campaign for student body president and vice president starts officially at midnight on Friday. Four tickets are seeking the office.
One of those tickets consists of juniors Libby Bishop, the presidential candidate, and Trip Foley, the vice presidential candidate.
Their campaign slogan, according to Bishop, will be "More students, less government." Going along with that slogan, some important themes of their campaign will include "focusing on being student representatives" and "listening more to students," she said. Bishop added that she and Foley have several ideas for increasing communication with students.
After spending last semester in the London Program, Bishop is currently the social co-chair for the Class of 2003. Foley has previously served as treasurer for the Class of 2003 and as student body secretary.
Presidential candidate Brian Moscona and vice presidential candidate Keri Oxley plan to run on the slogan "enVISION the possibilities."
Based on their experience in student government, Moscona and Oxley have heard from other campus groups that various organizations seem to be competing against each other in their programming and student services. If elected, Moscona and Oxley plan to use their office to unify these different organizations instead working alone, Moscona said.
Moscona, a junior, is currently the student body vice president, while Oxley is the president of the Class of 2004.
Running with the slogan, "We're serious — seriously," presidential candidate Nikki McCord and vice presidential candidate Nick Williams want to find "simple solutions for simple problems," according to McCord.
McCord added that Notre Dame has many positive aspects, but that she and Williams plan to fix what is not working. McCord, a junior, is in her second term representing Pasquerilla East in the Student Senate and is also a member of the Student Wellness Advisory Board. Williams is vice president of the Class of 2004.
Another of the four tickets — presidential candidate Scott Palko and his running mate P.J. Mercanti — is running under the slogan, "Leadership is action, not position."
"A good chunk of our platform is student-based," said Mercanti. "We want to show our leadership through action."
A junior, Palko is the former president of The Shirt project and currently the president of the NDToday Web site. Also a junior, Mercanti has served as a commissioner in Keough Hall and is currently a captain of his hall's hockey team.
Unlike last year, when candidates began as soon as they handed in their qualifying positions, all candidates will begin campaigning at the same time in this year's election.
Judicial Board vice president John McCarthy said the uniform start time makes the elections easier for the judicial board to control. In addition, it makes the campaign period shorter, which McCarthy said most students prefer.
"It was a long time last year, and it got kind of annoying," he said.
The four tickets will debate each other on Feb. 6. The primary election is scheduled for Feb. 11. If no ticket receives more than 50 percent of the vote, there will be a runoff election on Feb. 14.
All News Stories for Friday, January 25, 2002
