CommenTATE

Several of last year’s winners congratulate each other.

Many freshmen running for the class board or UA are frantically searching The Daily Pennsylvanian archives (or a tricked out Google search) for what past candidates wrote. Yep. I know that perfectionist instinct.

These freshmen are given candidacy statement space in the DP this week via an NEC. And most freshmen will skim through them. I hope they all choose to write it wisely. Here are some recommended elements to include or not (based on what others in the past who have won and lost have written):

Do:

-Write a clear one sentence platform
-Include a link to a campaign webpage (if one exists)
-Give location and date of a press conference
-Use proper grammar and spelling
-Emphasize your ability to execute and get the job done
-Make it into some kind of narrative that keeps us reading
-Commit yourself to getting HBO on the Penn Video Network

Don’t:

-Open your statement with the word “Yo”
-Patronize your audience (you’re not above us)
-Toss in too much humor (you’re running for class office not class clown)
-Rhyme your name with any adjectives
-List your high school leadership positions
-Write a poem (or a rap)
-Claim your goal is to “have fun”
-Use trite buzzwords like “change” and “experience”
-Tell us what you like to do for fun
-Include where you went to high school
-End each sentence like “!!!!!”
-Hint that you’re from New Jersey (I mean, what?)

Just make it stand out somehow. The majority of statements say the same thing.

CommenTATE appears every Monday and Friday.

CommenTATE

The class of 2011 is looking outstanding.

It includes a College freshman who blogs under the alias The Frosh Prince on Making It Count’s Year One: A College Blog, owned by Monster.com. That’s hot.

I ran into him because I chill in different common rooms during the evenings at Hill College House. I talk about random topics. I hear crazy stuff. I’m curious about what kind of stuff people do - who knows, maybe I’ll run into someone working on the next Facebook. Last week in a common room, I mentioned blogging. This freshman claimed he also blogged. I lucked out because I wouldn’t have known otherwise: The Frosh Prince must anonymously blog his freshman year due to legal issues with Monster.

Let’s see if he can stack up to some of his competitors. Universities across the nation have recruited students to blog their college years. Johns Hopkins. Cornell. Dartmouth. MIT.

Right now, Penn doesn’t sponsor students to officially blog on their college life. But, wew should follow suit. Prospective students love these blogs — Johns Hopkins declares student blogs “helped the university boost applications by 31 percent over two years.” A fast paced blog from the “Social Ivy” would reveal a freshman’s thrill of attending this academic super power while immersed in the streets of Philadelphia, where it seems every other car is blasting Soulja Boy.

We need to harness this new communication technique. Penn could receive more than just a rise in applications. The blogs would be a booster engine to rising Penn’s name recognition. Unlike Cornell and Dartmouth, we’ve got more than just classes or clubs.

CommenTATE appears every Monday and Friday.

CommenTATE

I hope you’ve absorbed the methods for storming into class office from Friday’s post. I promised more:

6) Rub shoulders with the Daily Pennsylvanian and find a reporter who’s willing to cover a “press conference” that you hold in a rented out classroom or college house common room.

7) Discuss policies that are impracticable but that everyone wants nonetheless: longer dining hours, better food, PennCard access at every propriety store on campus, air conditioning in Hill, etc.

Join some extracurricular club or cultural organization and get their endorsement. College sophomore Zac Byer, who won election to the 2007-2008 UA, received an endorsement from the Penn College Republicans. In a phone interview, he emphasized soliciting “support and endorsements from the organizations [you are] involved in on campus.” He interviewed on Penn College Republican’s UTV show, The Penn Red and asked his fraternity brothers for campaign help.

9) Form a campaign team. Find someone who can be a campaign manager and energize friends to distribute flyers and signs. Wharton sophomore Arthur Gardner Smith, who won the office of class president my freshman and sophomore years, received support from a team “made up of floormates, members of [the Black Student League] and people [he] met at Wharton Club events.”

10) Use technology to your advantage. Make YouTube videos (more noticed than the UA’s.) Create a campaign website. Use Facebook to promote both. That’s less annoying than the undistinguishable “Vote [insert your name here] for Class President” group.

Many of the people running for the Freshman Class Board and Undergraduate Assembly were class officers in their high school student government so strategy is now an element of the campaign. And you must run it like a real campaign to win.

CommenTATE appears every Monday and Friday

CommenTATE

The biggest sign wins the race.

It’s that time of year, where candidates for the Freshman Class Board and Undergradudate Assembly are lining up. I’ve seen some of you in the dining hall campaigning and I want you to know that I’ve been there before. I lost, but I learned some things from my opponents:

1) The amount of campaign expenditures is capped at $50. Use it all. If you don’t have $50, it’s easy to acquire: go down the hall, knock on everyone’s door and ask for a dollar. I did this for at least half. No problem.

2) Flyer the dining halls heavily.

3) Try to gain access to a course listserv. The NEC forbids you from using a “class-wide” or “class-wide/school-wide” listserv. Remember, though, you “must ask the instructor’s permission” first.

4) Skip campaigning at the college houses named Rodin, Harnwell, and Harrison — these are the hi-rises, primarily upperclassmen. Focus on Ware, Riepe, and Fisher Hassenfeld — the Quad. The college house with the most freshmen is usually Hill. Cash in on this jackpot first. Hill House is like Iowa for U.S. politics–you only want to be there during campaign season. After getting out the vote at Hill and the Quad, plan a special visit to Kings Court.

5) If you live in Hill and you are running, jump in QUICK. Don’t waste time. If there are more than 3 people running, talk some of them into exiting the race (i.e. ‘you’ll always have my ear once I win’). Otherwise the vote will be split and someone living in another college house will end up winning (I know this well because there were about 5 of us running from Hill). And even if they don’t seem competitive in Hill they will at least garner 50 votes by fact of living on a highly-populated hall. That’s 50 votes you could have.

Look for more tips from the trench on Monday.

CommenTATE appears every Monday and Friday.