Come Tuesday night, one of three contenders will replace Josh Warren '02, who has been 2002 class president since freshman fall.
Sophomores John Chibbaro, Phil Mone and T.J. Wright will contend for the presidency, while Molly Stutzman '02 runs for vice president unopposed.
The election will be conducted online from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Monday. Tuesday, and the results will be announced later Tuesday night.
The outsiders
Two of the three candidates -- Mone and Chibarro -- have never held Class Council positions; they said they want to 'shake up the scene' for the Class of 2002.
Mone said his primary motivation for running for president is that he would like to see the Class of 2002 'rediscover Dartmouth.'
"I feel that in the past two years we've found our little niche, and that's great, but I hate to see the Class of 2002 missing out on everything else that's going on here," he said, noting his newfound involvement with the sport of rugby
In addition to 'rediscovering the College,' Mone's other reason for running is to help students rediscover their classmates. As an organizer of last weekend's Dartmouth Outing Club sophomore trips, Mone said the overwhelming response was that participants were thrilled to meet other sophomores.
"[The DOC trips] force you to branch out. I'd like to promote activities where we become reacquainted with members of the Class of 2002," he said.
Chibbaro represents another new face to class council scene.
In fact, Chibbaro said he immediately deleted the BlitzMail message urging students to run in the election, only deciding later that he was interested.
"I was president of my high school class, and I wanted to get involved and get different people involved and make people have fun," he said.
While Chibbaro said he is not running on a specific platform, he wants to lighten the mood and recruit new faces to the organization.
"Everyone [in class council] takes themselves and their jobs so seriously that it makes everyone else scared to get involved," he said. "I want to go in and shake things up a bit. The same thing happened in high school, and it worked. I think we can have a lot more fun and not make it so insular and serious."
Mone had a similar sentiment regarding the current composition of the council.
"Right now, it looks like an active group of about 12 people, and I'm not one of them," he said. "To get new blood in there is helpful because it's been that same group of 12 people since early on -- it hasn't changed or evolved."
Mone also said that while not involved in class council, through his involvement in Glee Club, the DOC and the admissions office, he has acquired organizing and publicity experience.
In terms of experience in running for a popularly elected position at the College, all three presidential candidates are novices.
While Wright has experience chairing some of the council's committees, he never ran for a higher position because he did not think he could put the requisite amount of time into the job.
"[Being president] needs attention and activity because you're producing not only an image for your class, but a liaison between the student body and the deans," he said.
When asked why he decided to run for president this time around, Wright responded that after his efforts in rewriting the council's constitution as policy co-chairman last spring, he better understood the role of the president.
"The president plays more of an image-based external role, and I'm fascinated with the way image can direct people to do things," Wright said.
Wright's goals include the "rejuvenation and redirection of the council towards a concerted effort that would make it stand out and stand apart as an organization on campus."
He noted that while freshman year the council had many good activities, intensity petered out sophomore year as people found other organizations and rushed Greek houses.
Goals of the vice president
Stutzman said next year members of the Class of 2002 will have varying D-plans, and thus will have unique needs that the council can help fulfill.
"I want to work on keeping people who are off [campus] in touch with Dartmouth, making transitions easier" when they return, she said.
In seeking to provide continuity against the disruptive forces of the D-plan, Stutzman hopes to organize mini-convocations -- similar to what occurred last winter in the Top of the Hopkins Center -- when administrators updated students returning to campus about the previous term's news.
Another of Stutzman's goals is to work on informing students, in coordination with Career Services, about job and internship opportunities as they begin to think about life beyond college.
Previous involvement
Of the candidates, Stutzman and Wright have the most experience with class council -- both were heavily involved in the council their freshman and sophomore years.
"I started doing council freshman fall and I've always loved the people, that they're motivated and that they want to change and do something for our class," said Wright, a co-chair of the upcoming sophomore family weekend.
In addition to Stutzman's participation on the council's student activities committee, she was involved in the Student Assembly her sophomore year. She recently ran for Assembly vice president this past spring, but lost by a 33 vote margin.
Now running unopposed, Stutzman's chances appear to be more optimistic. "It looks like I'll be VP next year -- the real race is the presidential race," she said, noting that she has not heard of anyone mounting a write-in campaign.
In keeping with the seemingly lazy, laid-back atmosphere of Summer term, interviews with the candidates revealed the level of campaigning for the upcoming election will be decidedly low-key.
For the most part, the candidates said they plan to use their friends as mouthpieces to spread the news of their candidacy.
"It's tough [to campaign] because it's summer and people are living off campus and in their houses," Mone said. "I'll blitz friends, but there doesn't look to be much scheduled stuff."
Both Chibbaro and Wright plan to focus their energies on encouraging voter turnout on Monday and Tuesday.
