After a relatively quiet campaign season, write-in candidate Tim Andreadis '07 emerged as the winner of the student body presidency with a shockingly large margin, leaving many students surprised at the results, especially in reference to the large margin of victory.
From the day he announced his decision to run for president as a write-in candidate, Andreadis took care to establish himself as an "alternative" candidate that was vastly different from ballot candidates Chrissie Chick '07, Adam Patinkin '07 and Dave Zubricki '07, who ultimately failed to differentiate themselves from one another.
Although Patinkin started the season with momentum by promising to make structural reforms to the Assembly, his platform pitched very similar issues as Zubricki's and Chick's, not to mention the platforms of past candidates.
While they quibbled over the level of Assembly experience needed to assume the post of president, each of the three ran similar campaigns focusing on what supporters of Andreadis often considered less pressing issues: They praised the Greek system but discussed making it more "inclusive," called for reform of the Committee on Standards and Dartmouth Dining Services, promoted adding a young alumnus to the Board of Trustees and promised to bring more GreenPrint and BlitzMail terminals to campus.
In a final debate, the Elections Planning and Advisory Committee noted Zubricki's initial lack of campaigning compared to other candidates -- an important point that likely hurt Zubricki, who came in second after Andreadis. His self-portrayal as an experienced Assembly veteran to a student body that has grown to regard the organization with apathy also probably damaged his campaign.
Chick, who received the fewest votes of the four candidates, was often criticized by her use of jargon like "cutting the red tape." She also failed to differentiate herself from the other ballot candidates; her attempt to walk the line between having experience and bringing a fresh perspective unburdened by "too much experience" ultimately made it difficult for her to establish an identifiable platform.
Patinkin, meanwhile, squandered any edge he did gain by promising to reform the Assembly when he faltered on issues like minorities within the Greek system and traditions like Tubestock during multiple debates.
Although Andreadis himself has served on the Assembly in the past, he quickly positioned himself as the outsider candidate by joining the race late and promoting a specific plan targeting sexual assault on campus.
He pushed the boundaries in more ways than one, campaigning with mass blitzes asserting that "Dartmouth is in TROUBLE" and aggressively getting out the vote during the two days of elections.
Andreadis, however, maintains that he did not exploit student fears.
"I don't think that we ran a campaign of fear," he said. "As for most of the campus being happy, that's absolutely true. Most people don't have to deal with [the issues I brought up], but a percentage does."
Some students, however, felt that Andreadis and his supporters' aggressive voting tactics were questionable.
"It's sort of ridiculous the way the election turned out," Dan Josebachvili '09 said. "It doesn't seem very fair or democratic when the winning candidate had people parading around Collis with a computer making you vote."
Andreadis noted that he had considered running since the fall of 2005, but said that he did not plan to run as a write-in candidate all along.
"I had sort of premeditated running," he said. "But when the time came for the elections I got kind of nervous about how the issues I was bringing up would be received. But once the candidates started running and I started hearing the same issues that have been brought up in past elections, I decided to run."
The fact that Andreadis pushed a radical campaign marking a deliberate departure from this Noah Riner '06's more conservative administration also promoted him as a fresh voice for the negatively-perceived Assembly.
While Andreadis said he did not specifically try to appeal to women and minorities on campus, he noted that he drew a lot of support from the gay and lesbian community.
"Many individuals with whom I have worked with in the [Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender] community actively supported and campaigned for me," he said.
In the end, nearly a quarter of students made it very clear that Andreadis was their number one choice to lead the Assembly next year.
