Voting returns spark runoff

Author: Adam Dede

Last week's Student Government Association (SGA) Presidential election has left the question of who will take Max Nardini's '08 place undecided. With the SGA having voted to withhold full election results, the only thing known about last Friday's vote is that Hiba Fakhoury '09 and Bobby Joe Smith '09 are now the only candidates left running.

Both candidates say they plan to campaign hard as they head into this final round of voting. To outline their plans for the SGA Presidency and their campaigns, both candidates sat down for interviews with The Middlebury Campus after their places in the run off election were announced.

Smith put a large focus on his experience on the SGA Senate and the way it has shaped his platform and the way he views getting things done in the SGA.

"Being in the Senate really helped me with my platform and it really helped me with finding out just what the responsibilities of being president are," said Smith. He went on to note that his Senate experience has taught him that even the most uncontroversial of proposals take a long time to get implemented. Keeping this in mind, Smith plans to begin organizing his initiatives before the end of this school year.

"I want to hit the ground before next year," said Smith.

Smith also stressed the importance of a strong group of leaders around him and says he is looking forward to putting together a strong cabinet for next year. Specifically, Smith said that he hopes to work with some of the other presidential candidates on many of the proposals they campaigned on.

"I would like Hiba on my cabinet," said Smith. "Hiba is a great leader."

Smith went on to say, however, that he feels Fakhoury's strong leadership skills are not balanced with a strong platform.

He ended his interview by listing communication and SGA presence, Africana Studies and a multi-purpose access card capable of serving laundry, debit, access, and copy functions in one card, as the three issues he most wishes to pursue throughout the year. He also listed safety concerns as an issue that he feels will become a growing concern to the Middlebury community, especially in the wake of the Nick Garaza disappearance.

On the other side, Fakhoury, who is currently abroad, gave an interview over AOL Instant Messenger. Her campaign has surprised many by its level of success even without her physical presence on campus. Fakhoury attributed this to the dedicated group of friends she has on campus, who have been working on her campaign. She also points to her high level of dedication and spirit as key factors in running a campaign from abroad.

"It has been very stressful at times," said Fakhoury.

Fakhoury focused, in her interview, on more student involvement in SGA. She said that she wants to hear from more students. To do this, she plans to conduct surveys of the student body as soon as she is elected so that she can gauge what initiatives are most important to her constituents.

Fakhoury is also, like Smith, looking forward to drawing cabinet members from amongst the other SGA Presidential candidates. However, she did not give any specific names.

After cabinet appointments and surveys of the student body, Fakhoury plans to organize a used book fair to help students find more affordable used textbooks, while also allowing students to sell their old books for more than they could get from the bookstore. She acknowledged that organizing the event would be difficult especially since it would have to be fully organized before classes, but she said she thinks it is very feasible.

"The main issue will be getting the word out," said Fakhoury.

Fakhoury was also excited to talk about her plans for a changed class registration system. She hopes to build a new registration system around student priorities rather than the current first-come, first-serve system. She explained that the system would allow students to assign a priority level to classes, leaving a computer program to then assign students to classes based on how highly they valued the class rather than upon how early they had woken up.

Fakhoury finished her interview by laying out her main goals for next year. She hopes first and foremost to increase student involvement and voice in SGA, which she hopes will lead into ideas that focus SGA on small achievable initiatives.

Both candidates will be campaigning hard through the end of this week and hoping for a turn out like the one seen last week in the first round of the election.