YCC elections come and go--but do Yalies care?

By Lauren Patrick

PATRICK MCGARVEY/YH Although YCC candidates are plastering the campus with campaign posters, questions about who is noticing them persist.

The two-week campaigning period is a crucial and grueling time for the candidates. YCC President Kimberly Taylor, TC '99, who had a staff to orchestrate her campaign, described it as "a personally strenuous process in which you present yourself and your ideas to the campus at one of the busiest times of the year."

Indeed, despite the increased workload towards the end of the year for most Yalies, current and past candidates said they routinely forego classes for the benefit of their campaigns. Former YCC President, Tyson Belanger, ES '98, took two weeks off from classes and went to each dorm room on Old Campus to distribute bookmarks--twice. "It's just not easy to reach out to people and show them how much you care," Belanger said. YCC Vice President Charles Rink, TC '98, reported that students were generally polite and receptive to his flyers and posters.

But the question of how students feel about the YCC has an ambiguous answer at best. Although statistics show that the student turnout rate in the YCC elections hovers around only 50 percent, Taylor described a student body interested in the issues and eager to vote. Concern about the issues in the election, she said, "is important because many issues and ideas have come to affect Yale even if the candidates themselves did not win."

A number of people, however, were more skeptical of the supposed student interest. "Most students are apathetic," UOFC Chair Josh Naftalis, TC '99, said. "They are not happy with the YCC unless they get something out of it." Former YCC Vice President Preston Hopson, SM '98, agreed that generating student interest is a frustrating task. "We tried to be an activist organization concerned with student issues, and have even invited people to come and participate in the meetings," he said. "If YCC were to disappear, people would realize how much it did for them." YCC members point to the lukewarm reception of the recently announ-ced cable-TV package as evidence of the student body's indifference.

But according to some students, the problem isn't apathy, it's a lack of voice in the decision-making process. "The only time I feel involved is during the elections," Ming Zhou, SM '00, said. "But after the candidates are elected I don't feel involved at all." Spring Fling, perhaps the most visible of the YCC's endeavors, has drawn the same type of criticism from students. "[Spring Fling] seemed to be just an arbitrary decision made behind closed doors. Yalies aren't really involved," Rasheena Harris, MC '99, said.

As a result of this distance, many students admitted that they don't recognize any of the candidates come election time, and often have little interest in voting unless their friends are on the ballot. Jennifer Emerson, BK '98, said that she will be voting for the first time this year because it is the first time she knows a candidate personally--and he's supposedly running as a joke. Harris said that when she receives an e-mail from a candidate she simply skims it and looks for a name to remember.

According to YCC candidates, new election regulations that limit the number of posters and flyers that a candidate is allowed to post force campaigning to become far more interactive. But even though candidates find themselves going door-to-door, according to Naftalis, one of the most important elements in winning a seat on the YCC is "getting your friends and their friends to vote for you."

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