Reflecting on campaign approaches, Student Assembly presidential and vice presidential candidates cited being personable, willing to listen and reflecting diverse voices on campus — including using Improve Dartmouth as a resource — as key strategies.
At Dartmouth, Student Assembly candidates can campaign for one week, are prohibited from engaging in negative campaigning and must abide to a spending limit set by the Elections Planning and Advisory Committee.
Presidential candidates Casey Dennis ’15, Jay Graham ’15, whose name will appear on the ballot as James, Jon Miller ’15 and Yesuto Shaw ’15 and vice presidential candidates Frank Cunningham ’16, Harry Qi ’17 and Matt Robinson ’15 began campaigning Tuesday at midnight and will finish when online voting opens at midnight on Monday. Sophia Pedlow ’15 is running as a write-in candidate, and is also participating in campaigning activities.
Dennis and Cunningham, Graham and Robinson, and Miller and Qi are running on joint tickets. Shaw is the only candidate running on a solo ticket, while Pedlow is running for president as a write-in candidate.
Tibble said he does not see running on a ticket as a guaranteed advantage because students vote for positions separately.
Cunningham said that running with Dennis has had several benefits, including the ability to reach more students because the pair interacts with different groups on campus. Shaw said he was surprised to see that the majority of the candidates were running on joint tickets. He noted that students may be unaware that they vote for each candidate individually even if two run together.
Pedlow, who noted in an email that last year’s winning tickets were split, said she did not feel that running without a partner was a disadvantage.
“I don’t feel like I’m campaigning alone,” she said in an email.“I made the decision to run in part because of the overwhelming encouragement from my peers to step up.”
Tibble, who also chaired EPAC during last year’s elections, said he sees little variation in campaign tactics this year. EPAC has not disqualified any candidate from either election, he said.
Almost all candidates have taken to social media to build support for their campaigns. All candidates except Pedlow have Facebook pages, Cunningham and Dennis have created an Instagram account and Shaw, Miller and Qi have created websites that feature their platforms and allow student feedback and peer recommendations. Miller and Qi released a video featuring a rap written by Carter Bastian ’17.
“Social media really brings people together — that’s why Mark Zuckerberg created it,” said Kyle Dennis ’15, one of Dennis and Cunningham’s campaign managers. “It’s a great tool because it’s so hard to get so many busy people in one room at a time.”
Cunningham and Dennis have three campaign managers, Kyle Dennis, who is Casey Dennis’s twin brother, Reilly Johnson ’16 and Catherine Donahoe ’15. The duo, who said they were influenced by Cunningham’s work for President Barack Obama’s 2012 campaign, divided their team into visibility, social media and video and press.
Shaw said he was inspired by current student body president Adrian Ferrari ’14, whose campaign website featured student recommendations.
Graham was also impressed with Ferrari’s campaign and his personable attitude, adding that he encourages students to email him and his running mate.
“In addition to what you’re running on it’s important to be a person someone feels comfortable talking to,” Graham said.
The candidates have continued traditional methods of campaigning as well, including creating posters and chalking sidewalks with slogans and names.
Graham and Robinson began giving out green and white chocolates along with business cards on Thursday morning. Miller and Qi have four posters, ranging from serious and platform-focused to lighthearted.
EPAC regulates all forms of campaigning, from posters to door-to-door conversations.
“The rules make sure that we’re not overwhelming campus with our visibility campaigns and ensure that it doesn’t become a nuisance to campus,” Shaw said.
Under EPAC guidelines, candidates have only a brief time period in which to convey their platform to the student body.
Candidates agreed that they have to complete an immense amount of campaign work in a short time, with sleep becoming a second priority. Today is day four of the six-day campaign window.
“You’re probably sitting in a room of people who have had a total of 12 hours of sleep combined,” Cunningham said, speaking for his campaign team. “That’s how committed we are to the campaign.”
The student-run EPAC provides election oversight, with rules detailed in its annual election guidelines. The rules apply to all candidates, including Pedlow.
“What’s good about EPAC is it’s students holding other students accountable and making sure they’re playing fair, so to speak,” EPAC chair Ryan Tibble ’14 said.
The guidelines set a $200 spending limit each for presidential and vice presidential candidates, and who are then reimbursed beyond the first $50 spent after presenting receipts to EPAC.
Tibble said the EPAC sets spending limits so that no single candidate has a financial advantage and all students are able to run, regardless of socioeconomic background.
All the candidates agreed that the spending limit creates an even playing field and is more than sufficient funds for running a successful campaign.
“Without it, you create a situation where the candidates who have more money end up winning,” Graham said. “In the real world that’s how it works, but this way the students can decide who the best fit for the student body is and anyone on campus who feels like they have a message can do it.”
The spending limit changes, however, when two students run a campaign together. Candidates on a joint ticket may spend up to 75 percent of the total funds that the rules allow, or $300 for a joint presidential and vice-presidential campaign.
Campaigning at Dartmouth has not seen any major rule changes in the past few years. The largest recent change was in 2012, Tibble said, and modified a rule that barred students who had been suspended by the College from running for president or vice president.
This rule led to the disqualification of Will Hix ’12 in the 2011 race, though Hix ultimately ran as a write-in candidate. Now, students must sign a disclaimer and allow their suspension to become public knowledge before running.
