Brett Theisen '05 will be the only challenger to incumbent Student Body President Janos Marton '04, who has chosen to defend his seat in the upcoming Student Assembly elections.
Theisen, a government major and varsity football player from Cold Spring, MN., was the only presidential candidate other than Marton to submit a petition to the Assembly's election committee. Petitions for several campus leadership positions were due yesterday.
Marton is unusual as a school president in that he was elected as a sophomore, and has the unique opportunity to remain president for two consecutive years.
Theisen said that if elected he would focus on de-centralizing the Assembly and that he would delegate more to committee chairs than Marton has.
Theisen also said he felt it was time someone who was not "the typical SA executive" to be elected.
Though currently unaffiliated, Theisen says he plans to rush this summer and considers himself not simply pro-Greek, but that he supports the administration taking a more "hands-off" approach to how students spend their free time.
"Everyone wants to improve the College intellectually, but on the way to improving academics, we should not risk the athletic and arts programs," Theisen said.
Marton said that a second year as student body president would help him continue work in progress. "It would be really good cause a lot of the projects we've been working on have just started," he said.
Marton added that he felt his possible second term would be "more efficient" due to his familiarity with much of the campus bureaucracy and that many of the projects he has worked on are still in a middle phase -- especially the new alcohol policy.
If re-elected, Marton plans to continue working toward having a young alumnus on the Board of Trustees, continue the Collegiate Readership Program and continue dealing with the projected $8 million budget shortfall.
As long as we have a few goals for next year, the rest will come up," said Marton of what he had learned from this term.
Marton emerged as the pro-Greek, pro-reform candidate last year, and won the presidency by just over 100 votes. Last spring Marton told The Dartmouth that he felt his victory was "very strong mandate for reform."
In addition to student body president, Marton is also vice president of Gamma Delta Chi fraternity, a columnist for the Dartmouth Free Press, and co-chair of Dartmouth Students for John Kerry.
For Student Body Vice-President -- a position currently held by Julia Hildreth '05 -- the candidates will be Echo Brown '06, Todd Rabkin Golden '06, Brett Martin '04, Noah Riner '06, Dave Wolkoff '05 and Diana Zhang '06.
The elections for Student Body President and Vice President as well as class officers will be held online beginning on April 30 and continuing until May 1.
