While some candidates are turning to more conventional methods of campaigning in these last days before the election, others are running more hi-tech campaigns or are just trying to be different.
Taking the hi-tech route, presidential candidate Unai Montes-Irueste '98 and vice presidential candidate Bill Kartalopoulos '97 are asking students to navigate the Internet to learn more about their campaigns.
Kartalopoulos said he thinks he is the first candidate to present his platform on a World Wide Web page.
"I think it is a creative way for candidates to get information out without spending a lot of money," Kartalopoulos said.
He said students can access his Web page to find out about his experience and ideas. Its Web page address is http://www.dartmouth.edu /~wsk/VP.
"Every year you see controversy in campaigning," Kartalopoulos said. "With the advent of new technology, it would be nice to see meaningful, informative and fair campaigns."
Montes-Irueste '98 has just completed his campaign's Web site at http://www.dartmouth.edu/~wsk/unai/.
But his more conventional side has been disappointed with the dearth of forums for debate during the campaign period, he said.
"Debating the issues and interacting with candidates is the best way" for platforms to get across, Montes-Irueste said.
He said he plans to continue to meet with various campus groups and is spreading the word about his Web page in these last days of the campaign.
Presidential candidate Jon Heavey '97 said he is just trying to be different.
He said the strategy he has adopted for his campaign has been "to run in as much of an aberration from the accepted manner as possible."
Heavey said he takes on the ideas he hears "people complain about the most."
Other candidates' campaigns are sticking to more tried and true forms of campaigning -- some are focusing on messages and others on poster content.
Simone Swink '98 is running Sarah Cho '97's presidential campaign. Swink said they began by looking at what Cho was thinking and built her campaign from there.
"It is useless for a person to run if they don't believe in what they are saying," Swink said.
She said Cho has spoken to a variety of campus groups in the past week and plans to continue getting her ideas out to as many people as she can before the elections.
Presidential candidate Scott Rowekamp '97 said he and running mate Joan Ai '98, have tried to emphasize the strong points of their team -- their leadership, dedication and qualifications -- "to give people an idea of who we are."
He said they decided to make their posters simple. "I know people aren't going to stop and read three paragraphs of stuff," he said.
Ai said she and Rowekamp wanted to see what the other candidates did with their posters and then do something different.
Ai said their posters are mainly for name recognition, and she said they have spent many hours "going around and meeting people."
Other candidates are trying to add substance to their poster content.
Presidential candidate Steve Salemi '97 said his posters illustrate ways he will bring results if elected.
He said people want to know "how you will make things better and how you will get results."
The campus "as a whole is apathetic, the students are not interested in hearing a lengthy vision, and many of the candidates have the same vision," he said.
Vice presidential candidate Chris Swift '98 said he thinks posters serve two purposes -- name recognition and putting the candidate's message out.
Swift's campaign manager Matt Shafer '97 said he and Swift are trying to run "as substantive a campaign as possible."
Shafer said they "want people to say 'wow, he has good ideas' not 'wow, he has good posters.'"
Swift said, "The issues are more important than experience. It is not what you have done in the past that matters, it is what you are going to do in the future."
Meredith Epstein '97, who is running for Assembly vice president as a write-in candidate, is in London this term, but Ben Hill '98 is running her campaign.
Hill said he plans to distribute three waves of posters to advertise Meredith's candidacy as well as distribute pamphlets door-to-door.
