USC in View: and they’re off

Kaleigh Rogers January 30, 2012 19 Comments »

It’s officially that time of year again. Tonight, to a crowd of about six—including their own campaign teams, the Gazette and BPC—four candidates officially announced they are running for USC president.

Two guys and two girls, each with different backgrounds and levels of involvement with the USC, should make for an interesting campaign race. Here’s a quick breakdown of the candidates at first glance:

Adam Fearnall

Continuing the trend started by Omid last year, the USC’s speaker is throwing his hat in the ring this year. Holding a more visible role on council (i.e., sitting at the front of the room every council meeting) could be an advantage, although history shows it’s not enough alone to win an election. But this kid already has a presidential line: his previous positions have included president of the Huron University Students’ Council. His quiet, gentle demeanor betrays that this candidate is a force to be reckoned with.

Claire McArthur

Beaming from the weekly galleries of Premier Life, you may already recognize this vivacious bundle of energy. A Twitter aficionado, with over 3,000 tweets under her belt, McArthur obviously has a lot to say. It will be interesting to watch how her social media campaign shakes down—expect fun videos and outrageous tweets. But she has a serious side too, she’s also an active social science soph eager to make the leap to the head of the pack.

Logan Ross

A third-year science student and current science soph, Ross doesn’t have a huge presence on campus or a ton of experience under her belt. She may seem like the underdog with her quiet presence, but often these types of candidates can surprise us early—or late—in the race and suddenly surge to the top. I wish I had more to write about Ross, but unfortunately there’s not much else to say. Somehow I expect that to change very soon.

Jon Silver

As student representative for the Board of Governors—a two-year tenure—Silver regularly rubs elbows with university elites, including the big C, Amit Chakma, and his worship Joe Fontana. This should mean he’s comfortable working with and representing students with higher-ups. He’s outgoing and well-dressed, with a Forgione-esque way of making you feel like you’ve been friends for years, which as we’ve seen before can be powerful tools in an election where many of the voters have never heard of any of their candidates before they saw their photo in the Gazette.

POSTED IN » USC In View

About the author: Kaleigh Rogers View all posts by Kaleigh Rogers

Kaleigh is the Multimedia Director for Volume 105 of the Gazette. She is currently pursuing a MA degree in Journalism and holds a BA in Honors English with a minor in Creative Writing.

19 Comments

+4 Kris February 2, 2012 at 1:49 am -

You guys need to realize that the success of the USC President does not depend on how much experience he has with the USC, or with student groups in general.

Sometimes (especially in this case), someone with a completely fresh new view is needed to actually fix up all the crap that the USC is doing. For example, I’m willing to bet that none of the current candidates are familiar with technology. Why is it important to know the tech field? It’s growing like crazy, and it shapes almost everything we do now. Knowing the industry makes many initiatives (like EventsNet) a crap load cheaper, and more efficient. Ever wonder why we hire tons of people for Room Bookings, when it could automated for a few thousand dollars?

Read this if you don’t trust what *I* say: http://bhorowitz.com/2012/01/31/why-has-andreessen-horowitz-raised-2-7b-in-3-years/
Andreessen is the guy who founded Netscape, and is directly responsible for pictures being allowed on the internet (yes, he’s responsible for porn). His entire point, is that intelligent CEOs, even if they don’t understand the internal workings right away, end up doing better than “established” people. Companies require change, and honestly, the USC needs a ton of change.

But this’ll never happen. Students don’t vote based on actual campaign issues. Students don’t vote on competence. Students seem to vote on who chooses the song they like the most in their useless campaign video.
-10 Rachel February 2, 2012 at 12:14 am -

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Jon Silver is top of his class, an EXPERIENCED guy who is confident and can carry the weight of meeting and sharing ideas with high up personnel. He is relatable and approachable, someone I can always depend on in class and outside of school. I think his platform is the most relevant to our issues as students and with his hard working nature he will actually stick to his following through.

i am voting for jon, for his platform, his experience and his amazing caring persona
-7 Randy January 31, 2012 at 8:33 pm -

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To be fair, Alex you did say

“looking at how things are going, even here. Is it just me, or does anyone else find it odd that all of the positive comments on Claire are getting upvoted to the top, while all of the comments supporting other candidates are being voted to the bottom?”

That kind of sounds like an accusation and is probably why Matt and others had a negative reaction to your comment. I am not aware of the issue you have with Premierlife but I think it is unfair for people to view negatively on Claire’s campaign because she has a strong social media network. She already has many follower on twitter facebook because social networking is an area she is strong in. Premierlife is a great and wise organization to team up with because of social media presence and strong presence on campus. Other candidates would LOVE to have such a strong social media team of supporters.

Seriously? Really? You are comparing backing from Goldman Sachs to being backed by Premierlife? I don’t get it. I hav about 350 followers on twitter so someone like me is what helps a candidate have a strong media presence.
-6 Alex January 31, 2012 at 4:12 pm -

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Matt – I have met Claire in person, and I agree that she is indeed a good person. I also think she’s very hard-working and charismatic. However, this does not change the fact that the organization that she has enlisted to assist her in her campaign has frequently used dirty social media tricks and social engineering in the past – to the point where they were even slandering competing local businesses in London. You can’t say that isn’t dirty, and that’s one of the reasons why I have completely lost respect for PremierLife.

While I am not saying her campaign IS going to turn out to be dirty, Claire needs to take very careful measures to ensure that her team plays by the rules, because I’m not the only one judging her team based upon past instances. I’m not crying foul; I’m issuing a precautionary statement. I understand that yes, Claire is a hardworking, sympathetic person, but as a leader and public figure, she needs to be aware of the reputations of the companies she uses to endorse her, and she needs to be aware that students ARE watching out for that.

I mean.

What would it be like if, hypothetically, some other team gets funding from Goldman Sachs?

That’s the same issue here.
-4 Alex January 31, 2012 at 3:52 pm -

I actually feel like Michael’s statement is the exact opposite of what Adam’s campaign was. If you do your research and take a look at his campaign, you’ll see that his mandate is to change the way the usc defines “involvement”. Instead of viewing involvement as being involved strictly with the usc, Adam wants to recognize that the students ARE already involved in their own ways, be it their studies or hobbies or a part-time job, and support them where they’re at. In other words: he wants to bring the usc out of its self-centered view and out into the REAL Western community.

If you attended his campaign launch, you would have noticed only a fraction of the students were actually with the USC.

And today – Adam was the only candidate that ditched the hustle and bustle of the UCC to personally go to the music building and meet music students in person, where they were at, without any prior publicity or plans to back him up – just him, no campaign team or anything. You should have seen how worried his campaign managers were for suddenly breaking that norm and following his own values!

Do YOUR research, Michael.
-7 Matt McGuigan January 31, 2012 at 3:50 pm -

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@Alex you are delusional if you think Claire’s campaign is socially immature. Alleging a ‘dirty’ campaign when (3 total) people have voiced their opinions on Claire, and assessing her and her team members by the fact that she happens to write for PremierLife is ridiculous.
Though Claire is a friend of mine, I am not a member of her team. I suggest you attend a debate and get to know her and her platform before firing off threats and crying foul.
+4 Michael January 31, 2012 at 2:00 pm -

Look at all the supporters of Jon Silver and Adam Fearnall. All of them are either Sophs or involved in the USC in some form. Not that this is a bad thing, but keep in mind that these people represent such a small portion of the entire western community.

It is quite reasonable to infer that should either of these candidates be elected into office, the scope of their concern would not exceed this group of people; 85%-90% of the western community will yet again be forgotten.

Stay educated with who you are voting for.
+2 Michael January 31, 2012 at 1:58 pm -

Look at all the supporters of Jon Silver and Adam Fearnall. All of them are either Sophs or involved in the USC in some form. Not that this is a bad thing, but keep in mind that these people represent such a small portion of the entire western community.

It is quite reasonable to infer that should either of these candidates be elected into office, the scope of their concern would not exceed this group of people; 85%-90% of the western community will yet again be forgotten.

Stay educated with who you are voting for.
+9 Erving Goffman January 31, 2012 at 1:26 pm -

I have no reason to believe this year’s candidates will be any different than the collection of clowns we’ve seen over the past few years.

This is a popularity contest and a resume booster, nothing more. I feel sorry for you if you think otherwise.

If precedent means anything, I’m guessing the candidate with the whitest teeth, tightest cardigan and silliest promises will win…but then Forgione already gave us those fantastic cellphone chargers, so I’m not sure what nonsensical shit they’ll bait us with this time.
-7 C January 31, 2012 at 1:19 pm -

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@Kris What makes the USC such a poorly run organization?
Michael Gold January 31, 2012 at 1:14 pm -

Logan’s the type of person that will ACTUALLY make a difference in the USC when elected. I’m tired of seeing the same type of people that are already so consumed by past USC ideals and think it’s finally time for change – a breath of fresh air!

I don’t want a party animal from PremierLife, that’s for sure!
-2 Dave January 31, 2012 at 12:37 pm -

For the record, the USC president’s salary is closer to $40,000…no where near $100k.

Check out Adam’s platform at http://www.voteadam.ca
10% of his salary is contingent on performance.
+10 Alex January 31, 2012 at 11:53 am -

I hope Claire’s social media team will play fair, however… Which might not be the case looking at how things are going, even here. Is it just me, or does anyone else find it odd that all of the positive comments on Claire are getting upvoted to the top, while all of the comments supporting other candidates are being voted to the bottom?

PremierLife has a reputation for being very immature on the social media front. If Claire wishes to win my support, she needs to emphasize the need for her team not to play dirty in dominating the social media front. Students notice.

In before this post gets voted to the very bottom.
-1 KL January 31, 2012 at 10:27 am -

@Kris, you should look into Adam Fearnall’s platform. Should he be elected, 10% of his salary will be contingent on his performance.
-2 Dennis January 31, 2012 at 2:47 am -

I feel that Logan Ross is going to shine throughout this campaign period. I Definitely #LoveLogan so far.
+3 Kris January 31, 2012 at 2:23 am -

I have a sneaky suspicion, that regardless of who wins, that $116,000/year salary will end up going to waste… again.

USC is by far the worst run organization I’ve ever seen, and I doubt any of the candidates will do anything to change that. Beautiful, that our student fees go to waste.
-4 Matt McGuigan January 31, 2012 at 2:13 am -

It’s nice how all of these candidates have been gifted with well-written write-ups. I know little of the other candidates, but I’d venture a guess in saying the most personable candidate will win.

Unlike governmental politics, the student cares more about ‘who you are’ than ‘who you know’

#bearnation
-4 Ava Williams January 31, 2012 at 1:08 am -

Claire is the type of person that, after your first conversation with her, you feel like you’ve been friends with for years. She’s genuine, hilarious, passionate and full of energy and wicked ideas. Her presence in a room does not go un-noticed and I am confident she will be successful in commanding the attention of the USC, the student body, the administration and the city of London if elected.

http://www.voteclaire.ca
-6 Mike Macdonald January 31, 2012 at 12:06 am -

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I had the privilege of working alongside Claire throughout high-school on Student Council and endless Prom and Semi-Formal Committees and being good friends then and since.

She’s a great candidate for the position because she works well under pressure, meeting deadlines, and doesn’t hesitate to speak up when needed. She’s enthusiastic, relateable, and genuinely (in every sense of the word) cares about her school and its student body.

Claire for USC Pres.