Campaigning Starts Tomorrow!

At 8:00 AM tomorrow morning, campaigning for the general election will begin. Here's what you should expect:

8:00 AM: The Facebook launch. Each ticket will have a Facebook group and you will be getting an invite to it. Expect a constant stream of status updates reminding you to join their group and check out their website. Speaking of websites, expect those to get live at 8:00 AM as well. They should contain platforms and promotional materials, giving us our first real glimpse into the campaign.

Early morning: Campus will be covered in campaign materials. Expect every kiosk, posterboard, and building to have something from each ticket.

Evening: Candidates will have their first chance to speak with student organizations. At least two tickets have already been organizing meet times. I wouldn't be surprised if events have been lined up for day one.

The questions tomorrow will answer:

• Who's going on TV?
• Who has an innovative campaign strategy this year?
• What are the platform points of interest?

Expect all-day coverage from the NISGElections.com team. We'll have a live blog starting with the campaign launch and analysis throughout the day. If you see anything interesting happening, take a picture and upload it to our Facebook fan page.

The Election Commission

Every election cycle, ten brave souls come together to form the body known as the Election Commission. This group, charged with upholding election guidelines, is one of the most overworked and under-appreciated groups in student government. Like a football team's kicker, they work hard behind the scenes. Some elections don't require them to do anything more than count ballots. Other elections, how they act and rule can decide who wins and who loses.

As a general rule, the less you hear about the Election Commission, the better the election. Candidates are able to focus on issues and students and not get caught up in rules and regulations. An activist Commission that goes out of its way to shake up an election will doom an election.

With that in mind, I became wary when Gage Rewerts was announced as the new Election Commissioner. "The Maverick" did not earn the nickname by working behind the scenes. It came as no surprise when rumors started to circle later that week that the Commission was considering moving the election back.

The logic for the change is actually sound. The Department of Residence pushed back the dates for re-contracting, making it difficult for students to know which constituency they would be in next year. The problem is the Presidential tickets have been planning this election for months. They have table tents reserved, posters and shirts mentioning the election date, and countless other promotional materials that would need to be changed.

Tonight, the Commission held their first meeting and wisely decided to leave the election date as is. The meeting did provide some interesting foreshadowing for the rest of the election. In particular:

• Rewerts has deemed himself a voting member of the Election Commission. There is some controversy as to whether the Commissioner can vote or not.
• Rewerts has made the group more secretive than in past years. The last part of the meeting was spent in executive session, meaning he kicked out all non-Commission members.
• The new Attorney General was in attendance. The position, designed by Rewerts when he was a Senator, was created to represent NISG to the student government's Supreme Court.

I'll keep you posted as we hear more.

Weekly Update

Facebook Frenzy Continues!

With the campaign season beginning next week, the candidates have been adding facebook friends like crazy! Here is a look at the increases:

Rhonda Greenway: 1,475 (1,047) Up 428

Adam Beaves: 1,188 (904) Up 284

Dakotah Reed: 836 (562) Up 274

Zach Simonson: 634 (559) Up 75

Spencer Walrath: 1,759 (1,694) Up 65

Ian Goldsmith: 1,870 (1831) Up 39

S0 if you thought for a second, even after the previous post, that facebook friend counts didn't matter: think again. At this point you have most likely received a request from one of the candidates.

New Student Organization

While some doubted their legitimacy and for many up to this point it was purely speculation that they would run, Dakotah Reed and Zach Simonson officially threw their hats into the ring as candidates this week by creating their official student organization, "Reed Simonson for UNI." Details aren't available yet as to who is involved and what positions they will be holding, but we will post those as soon as we have them. It seems a little late in the game to be creating a group. After all, the initial purpose of creating a student group is to announce your intention to run. After that you can begin reserving tables in the union, as well as table tents, bubble boards, and meeting rooms for your group. So while they now have that ability, the other candidates who have had their organizations for at least a week or more, will have an incredible advantage.

Legitimizing Themselves as Candidates

Often times, one of the things you will notice is that the candidates who are senators will begin to speak more frequently at the meetings to draw attention to themselves. Whether this is subconscious or intentional, candidates are attempting to legitimize themselves as leaders in NISG. If they can be the voice of reason or can influence the senate on an important vote, it makes them more credible to other senators. All 4 of the candidates who are currently senators (Greenway, Beaves, Walrath, Goldsmith) spoke frequently and impressively at the senate meeting Wednesday. It also became apparent that others were listening to them when they spoke. This is a big deal. It shows that they command respect and that the others want to hear what these leaders have to say. This is clearly a competitive advantage to being on senate that the Reed-Simonson ticket really lacks.

Rewerts Named Commissioner

In a somewhat shocking move (to this reporter/columnist), the NISG Senate and President Joel Anderson appointed Emeritus Senator Gage Rewerts as Election Commissioner. He will oversee the upcoming election. Current Graduate College Senator Dale Yurs stepped down from the position to focus on his academics. If you follow NISG you know that Mr. Rewerts is known for his radical behavior in Senate. 10 minute speeches, flipping chairs, inappropriate language, and sometimes crazy ideas (like making senate a monarchy) have become the norm for the former "maverick" of the NISG Senate. It will be interesting to see how Mr. Rewerts will do in his new position. Something tells me the NISG Supreme Court should be on stand by...I am hopeful they aren't needed though. Stay tuned!

Campaigning and Crises

It was mid-February in 2009. I was in heat of the NISG elections. I spent my days monitoring the campaign and the nights speaking with student groups. It was a crazy time in my life. This particular day, I was poring over my and my opponent's platform, comparing ideas and taking notes. They wanted meal plans in the Union, new majors, and longer Panther Shuttle hours. We wanted to go green and to get rid of taxes on textbooks.

That's when the crisis hit. The Regents had cut $8.8 million from UNI.

We went into emergency mode. Adam and Jake overhauled their platform. We tweaked ours. Everyone wanted to know how we'd handle the cuts. The University was shocked too. Budgets were slashed and services ended. This was the new era of UNI. We had to do the most with the limited money that was left. No more grand, expensive ideas.

Today, not much has changed. House File 45 (which NISG has been lobbying against) would cut $10 million from the Regents this year and $15 million next year. This drastically changes the way candidates and forced to campaign and develop their platforms. It always sounds good to talk about new services, but can they actually become a reality? 

So, as you look to the candidates' platforms next week, here are some things to keep in mind:

• Are the ideas affordable? (Hint: Meal plans in the Union are always a popular item. They will not happen. Ever.)
• Do the candidates address handling the budget cuts?
• Are there any innovative approaches to dealing with the University being forced to downsize?

Whichever tickets can answers those questions best is the one to pay attention to. Expensive, unrealistic ideas may sound good, but they'll quickly become a thing of the past once the newly elected candidates are forced to deal with the realities of the University.

The Campaign Team

One of the most important pieces to running a successful campaign for NISG President/Vice President is having an effective campaign team. With less than a month to reach out to 13,000 students, it is nearly impossible for the two students running to work on their own. So who is it that makes up these campaign teams? Generally, the candidates will turn to their close personal friends first. This usually includes making a list of your friends that you know will help if you ask. Next you add individuals who you believe are influential over a certain demographic that you want to solicit votes from to that list. Once you have made a list, you assign roles to these individuals. There are many positions that could be utilized on the campaign trail, but here are a few essentials: The Campaign Manager, Finance, Website/Media, Volunteers, Platform, and Marketing/PR. Now lets go over the responsibilities.

The campaign manager usually is one of your closer friends. This individual has to be trusted and is essentially the 3^rd member of the ticket. When choosing my campaign manager, it was important to find someone who was freakishly organized, responsible, and able to handle the large personalities of my running mate (Jake Rudy) and myself. Our campaign manager, Mary Jo, was fantastic for our campaign. She was responsible for organizing the campaign team, making decisions for the day-to-day activities, and purchasing (1,000 cookies to give away or 500?). This person will take a huge chunk of the stress off of the backs of the candidates to allow them to campaign and not worry about the details of how. Mary Jo made my schedule and decided which groups I would speak to and which groups Jake would head off to. Did I mention all this was done for free? Needless to say, the campaign manager is very important. If the candidates don’t have someone like this to depend upon, they will be taking on a significant amount of unneeded stress and it could be detrimental to their health, classes, and campaign.

The rest of the positions are pretty self-explanatory. Finance keeps track of your expenditures. This person plays a pretty critical role with the new spending cap of $2,000 for the candidates. They will need to help the candidates make decisions with the campaign manager about what to spend money on and what the campaign can function without. Website/Media will be building the campaign a website and then depending on budget decisions creating television ads and youtube videos. Volunteer coordinator is an individual that can coordinate where your volunteers will be and when they need to be there. Many students don’t realize that campaigns need to be everywhere, without the candidates actually being everywhere. You need volunteers at the dining centers, the union, hanging up posters, etc. and often times this can become a hectic schedule. Having a great volunteer coordinator can have a positive impact on the campaign’s success.

Then there is an individual responsible for the platform. While the candidates will develop this themselves, just like with any school paper or important document, you want an extra set of eyes to go over it for grammar and spelling. This individual or group of people can also help you do research. In student government campaigns, you don’t exactly have to reinvent the wheel. Many other schools have great ideas that you can bring to UNI. It is just a matter of finding these ideas on the Internet, then figuring out if they could work at UNI and then how you could implement them. The candidates can’t do this all on their own. Again, if they do, it could end up taking time that they might not have.

Finally, Marketing and PR is a critical position as well. This person will design all aspects of the campaign – what it looks like to the student body. Most candidates in the more recent elections will have a campaign logo. Something that students can identify quickly with the campaign. You will need designs for posters, t-shirts, buttons, facebook group pictures, monitor screen slides in the union, and graphics for the website. This person is essentially creating a brand and it is important that it is catchy, sharp, and the message is clear. If this person fails, the campaign fails. Period.

As you can see, the campaign team is vital to the success of the campaign. We are all humans so there will be slip-ups and errors. But the campaign team that can minimize errors and recover quickly will be the one that comes out on top on election night. The candidates are only as strong as the team they can assemble to help them.

The Laundry List

This will be my new weekly post of random updates happening with the campaigns...

Facebook Friend Frenzy

Apparently the candidates have been taking our Facebook friend advice to heart. As of this morning, here are the new counts:

Walrath: 1694 (up 132)

Goldsmith: 1831 (up 22)

Greenway: 1047 (up 198)

Beaves: 904 (up 147)

Reed: 562 (up 57)

Simonson: 559 (up 227)

Candidates just have to find a way to not offend voters with this spree. One student put up this status a couple of hours ago. Ouch.

Darrin Sersland: "If you're running for an NISG position on campus: No I will not add you on Facebook just so you can boast to the other campaign(s) that you have more friends. Being you have never actually talked to me in real life (before and after you get elected), why the fuck would I bother to add you just so you can feed your ego and boost your standing in the popularity contest?"

A New Student Organization

The Students for Greenway-Beaves is now an officially recognized student organization. The constitution provides a sneak peak into their campaign. Kristen Meyers (Director of Student Orgs, Boeckmann-Palomo ticket), Danny Lockard (Webmaster), Owen Cue (Campaign Finance), Ciara Pearce (PR), Dakota Funk (E-Media), Mackenzie Bloom (Residence Life), Erin Hiatt (Campaign Design), Chase Aunspach (Campaign Manager), Cassandra Hayne (Platform), and Yaw Kyeremateng (Outreach) are now all confirmed as part of the election team.

This compares to the Walrath-Goldsmith team of Morgan Johnson (E-Media, Boeckmann-Palomo ticket), Derrick Knight (Outreach, Cezar-Lobdell ticket), Austin Foster (Volunteerism), April Czarnetzki (Publicity), Geoff Bueker (Platform), Kashonna Drain (Campaign Manager), and Hannah Olson (Finance).

Former tickets worked and positions noted in parenthesis.

Lack of Lobbying

Last night, NISG members were invited to a local legislative forum to discuss the budget cuts affecting UNI. Curiously, Reed and Greenway were the only candidates in attendance. One of the biggest responsibilities of the executive branch is working with elected officials. Perhaps it was the weather or the Friday evening timing, but I expected more candidates.

UPDATE: It has come to my attention that Walrath announced at the Senate meeting he would be missing the forum for an opera performance. My apologies for not noting that.

Senate Overhaul

Last Wednesday, I proposed an overhaul of Senate with the support of Adam and NISG President Joel Anderson who called it one of the most important pieces of legislation affecting NISG. The final vote on the bill will be this Wednesday -- I'll keep you posted on how candidates position themselves on it. Initially, Walrath appears to be supportive while Greenway and Goldsmith appear to be on the fence. It will be interesting to see how the tickets positions themselves on it.

That's all for this week! Stay tuned to NISGElections.com for more updates!

Caught in the Act

A screenshot from Spencer Walrath's Facebook page...

Candidates know what's going on.

Facebook Friends...Are You Serious?

Many of you may have noticed something in our candidate write-ups...Facebook friend counts. You must be thinking we can't possibly be serious. It's Facebook! Friends aren't some popularity contest. This is dumb.

Let me give you a little history of NISG Presidential races...

• 2007 - Morse-Bentley run unopposed and win.
• 2008 - Bentley-Doudna v. Cezar-Lodbell. Both groups launch their Facebook groups day one of campaigning. Bentley-Doudna take an early group size lead, then Cezar-Lobdell surges back. For the final 3 weeks of campaigning, Cezar-Lobdell holds the group size edge. They win the election.
• 2009 - Haselhuhn-Rudy v. Boeckmann-Palomo. My ticket took an early lead in the Facebook group race. Adam's ticket surges back to start off week three of campaigning. They hold the edge for the next month and win the race.
• 2010 - Anderson-Hashman run unopposed.

In every race since the explosion of Facebook, the bigger Facebook group has won. Now, let's look at the friend totals of these candidates in the competitive races:
Bentley: 1090 (down from 2k while running)
Doudna: 1473
Cezar: 3228
Lobdell: Unknown (was over 2k while running)
Haselhuhn: 1324
Rudy: 1389
Boeckmann: 1607
Palomo: 772 (down from 1k+ while campaigning)

These counts are all well above typical friend totals. Do they mean that these people are popular so people vote for them? No, of course not. Large friend counts are important because of the outreach potential they give you. You're able to invite your whole friends list to your Facebook group, which gives you a chance to promote your ticket. Your posted items and statuses get more likes and comments. More likes and comments puts it onto more newsfeeds which gives it even more likes and comments, and so forth. Large friend counts let you get known.

You don't even have to know all the people (though it certainly helps). When I was preparing for my run, I was adding friends like a madman. The Econ Club? Add them all. UNI Freethinkers and Inquirers? College Republicans? Every person in those groups got a friend request from me. A large percentage of them accept and you start generating views on your profile.

In the two days of this blog's existence, Adam and I have been able to get nearly 300 hits to the site by merely posting it on Facebook. Do you think this would be possible if we only had 300 friends a piece? Of course not. But with our 2600 unique friends between us, we're able to gain an audience. Imagine the advantage this gives to candidates.

Still don't think Facebook matters. At the time of this post, Potential Candidate Rhonda Greenway had 1,021 friends. That is an increase from 849 after our first post about her candidacy. How about her VP, Adam Beaves? Yesterday he was at 757. As of this post, he was up to 827. Also take a minute and think about the amount of time you spend on Facebook each day. I bet for the majority of you, it is typical to log on over three times a day! Facebook is one of the most important tools a campaign has at its disposal - let's see who uses it best!

Introducing the Candidates: Reed-Simonson

This is the final part in our three part series, “Introducing the Candidates.” We’ll tell you who’s running for NISG President and Vice President this spring and give you a little bit of information about them. The third ticket we’re looking at is Dakotah Reed and Zack Simonson.

Quick Bio

Presidential Candidate

• Name: Dakotah Reed
• Major: Management
• Standing: Junior
• Experience: NISG Chief of Staff

Vice Presidential Candidate

• Name: Zach Simonson
• Major: Political Communication
• Standing: Junior
• Experience: Model UN, UNI Forensics, NISG Supreme Court Justice

The Ticket

• Webpage: To be added
• Facebook group: To be added
• Pros: Reed-Simonson enter the race as the dark horse. While relatively unknown, they appear to have strong organizational skills and a source knowledgeable of the campaign reports they are dedicated to this effort.
• Cons: No one has a clue who they are. In addition, their majors and extra-curriculars allow them to potentially steal some votes from Greenway-Beaves, but that's not where their votes need to come from.

Dakotah Reed is new to the scene at UNI. He transferred this fall from the University of Iowa and became the new Chief of Staff for the Executive Branch in early October. Google searches show him as politically active and an entrepreneur, but not much else. He enters the race as the first Republican, giving him a potential constituency -- but his lack of NISG experience will hurt him. He has the fewest Facebook friends of any candidate, other than his running mate, at 505.

Zach Simonson's resume mirrors Greenway. He was a politically active high schooler who was hired as a Page with the Iowa Senate his senior year. He came to UNI and joined Model UN and the forensics team. His only NISG experience is serving as Clerk of the Court and Associate Justice for the Judicial Branch. At 332 Facebook friends, he comes in at the lowest in this race.

One has to wonder what Reed-Simonson have planned for this race. They reek of professionalism which could set them up to steal votes from Walrath-Goldsmith -- if anyone knew them. They have no constituencies with which to speak and little experience in NISG. That said, I've been impressed with what I've seen so far. They are organized and, who knows, crazier things than a Reed-Simonson win have happened in NISG history.

Introducing the Candidates: Walrath-Goldsmith

This is the second part in our three part series, “Introducing the Candidates.” We’ll tell you who’s running for NISG President and Vice President this spring and give you a little bit of information about them. The second ticket we’re looking at is Spencer Walrath and Ian Goldsmith.

Quick Bio

Presidential Candidate

• Name: Spencer Walrath
• Major: Music and Psychology
• Standing: Senior
• Experience: Veteran NISG Senator, Chair of the External Affairs Committee, Resident Assistant, Connecting Alumni To Students (CATS), and radio host.

Vice Presidential Candidate

• Name: Ian Goldsmith
• Major: Psychology and Theatre
• Standing: Junior
• Experience: First year NISG Senator, Student Admissions Ambassadors (SAA), Resident Assistant, Former Campbell Hall Senate President

The Ticket

• Webpage: Unknown
• Recognized Student Group: UNI Students for Walrath-Goldsmith
• Facebook group: To be added
• Pros: The Walrath-Goldsmith ticket is without a doubt the frontrunner and powerhouse ticket in this race. Both candidates have been extremely involved on campus and have a broad range of activities between the two of them. Also, Spencer is the candidate with the most NISG experience. They also are both Resident Assistants in Campbell Hall.
• Cons: They are the frontrunner. It could be very easy for the campaign to focus on the wrong issues or not connect with voters (See Bentley-Doudna vs. Cezar-Lobdell). The two have also been known for their humor, which could rub some the wrong way.

From my first days in NISG, I have known and worked with Spencer. He has been a Resident Assistant since 2008 in Campbell Hall, which will undoubtly be a great strength of his in the campaign. He is also one of the most senior members of the NISG Senate. He has certainly had the experience when it comes to debate and committee work. Walrath was also a crucial part of the creation of the Director of Governmental Relations position in the NISG Executive Branch. One thing is for sure, he deserves credit for speaking up and showing up to senate meetings. Walrath has 1,562 Facebook friends and counting, and that’s not just because he was adding for the campaign. He is also been involved with various music ensembles playing the trombone.

Goldsmith is a newcomer to the NISG scene. Like many before him, he joined last semester. As Trevor eluded too, its difficult to determine if this was a last minute grab at claiming “experience,” but nonetheless, it is always beneficial to have the candidates serving and learning in the Senate. But don’t let this newcomer fool you. Despite having a resume lacking NISG experience, he is a strong addition to the ticket. With 1,809 Facebook friends, it is difficult to find someone on the UNI campus who doesn’t at least recognize Ian. He is involved in vocal music and sings in the Men’s Glee Club. In addition to these activities, he has served as President of the Campbell Hall Senate, which will most likely be where he draws attention to his leadership and experience.

Between the two candidates, they will without a doubt be fantastic campaigners. They have the connections and the involvement to run an effective campaign. However, the two have been known for kidding around. (See youtube for more details.) This is a serious business, and it will be important for this ticket to legitimize itself early on. They need to prove they are not only great campaigners, but that they will be a great team to lead the student government. I’m looking forward to seeing the platform this group comes out with.

Introducing the Candidates: Greenway-Beaves

Welcome to the first of our three part series, “Introducing the Candidates.” We’ll tell you who’s running for NISG President and Vice President this spring and give you a little bit of information about them. The first ticket we’re overviewing is Rhonda Greenway and Adam Beaves.

Quick Bio

Presidential Candidate

• Name: Rhonda Greenway
• Major: Political Communications and Global Studies
• Standing: Junior
• Experience: Off-campus NISG Senator, Model UN Secretary-General

Vice Presidential Candidate

• Name: Adam Beaves
• Major: Political Communications
• Standing: Junior
• Experience: Former NISG Senator, UNI Forensics

The Ticket

• Webpage: www.rhondaandadam.com (suspected)
• Facebook group: To be added
• Pros: The Greenway-Beaves ticket has pulled together a strong team of NISG insiders to guide their campaign. Both candidates have a background in politics, particularly Greenway, that can be leveraged for support.
• Cons: They remain the decided underdog in this race and lack any real diversity in the constituencies where they find support (similar majors, standing, and backgrounds).

Greenway finds a special place in this writer’s heart for her background in the Iowa legislature. She was a political junky in high school and found a job in the Iowa Senate her senior year as a Page. The following summer, she continued her political involvement as a Democratic canvasser and joined NISG’s Freshman Council when she came to UNI. She quickly became involved with the Model UN and became Secretary-General this year. Her NISG experience is limited; the bulk of it has come as a Senator this fall. Candidates, unsurprisingly, find their way onto Senate the fall before their run. The optimistic reporter in me calls it getting informed. The cynic calls it a quick NISG experience grab. Greenway boasts a Facebook friends’ list of 849 after her fall friend add spree, but the number remains below where it needs to be for election time.

Beaves is a graduate of Hoover High School, which served him well during his time at UNI. Coming to college in 2008, he was greeted by high school friend and then NISG Senator Adam Haselhuhn. Beaves jumped into a Senate spot his freshman year and had his first taste of NISG elections the following spring on Haselhuhn’s team. This experience should be invaluable for the ticket. Beaves is active with the UNI Forensics team – a constituency that could have some power if motivated to action. He also works with the Students Against a Violent Environment and has served as a member of the Maucker Union Policy Board. He has 757 Facebook friends.

The ticket faces an uphill battle in this election. The pre-campaign underdogs have certainly won in the past (see: Cezar-Lobdell v. Bentley-Doudna), but it requires a great deal of strategy and innovation. In my opinion, the ticket should position themselves in a professional manner to grab any supporters put off by the Walrath-Goldsmith ticket. A great way to start this would be for Greenway to remove “princessrhonda08@msn.com” from her Facebook page and for Beaves to admit he’s not majoring in “Kicking ass and taking names.” Perhaps the ticket has other plans. Whatever they do, they face an uphill battle against the name recognition and star-studded leadership team of Spencer Walrath and Ian Goldsmith.

Introducing Adam

Greetings! Like Trevor said, welcome to the Northern Iowan’s NISG elections blog.

My name is Adam Haselhuhn and I am a 5th year senior here at UNI and a double major in political science and political communications. I started my NISG career working for the executive branch as an office assistant/chief of staff. Then I served as an Off-Campus Senator and Chair of the Student Affairs Committee. After that I asked my good friend Jake Rudy to run for Student Body President and Vice President. After a long, drawn out election cycle we eventually won the election. It was an honor to serve the students of UNI last year. I am excited to serve the students one more time by covering the NISG elections in a new way for the NI.

Currently I am the Coordinator for the College Hill Partnership, which is the neighborhood and business association for the college hill area. During my time at UNI I have been involved in various activities including Connecting Alumni To Students (CATS), Sigma Phi Epsilon Fraternity, Colleges Against Cancer, and the Maucker Union Advisory Board. While I was President I served on numerous university committees, including the Student Services Fee committee which develops a 2.6 million dollar budget.

When I was President my main goal in office was to make sure student’s voices were heard with administrators, faculty, and staff. We spent most of our time attempting to repair the image of NISG and prove the organizations legitimacy. We also wanted to reach out to students in new ways, like visiting student groups to get feedback, using social media outlets such as twitter and facebook, and implementing new programming such as Green Week and Alcohol Awareness Week. One thing I always struggled with was the amount of students who still didn’t know what NISG was despite all of our efforts.

During Trevor and my presidential campaigns, the NI did what it could to try to cover the elections, but it wasn’t enough. I know personally I spent thousands of dollars to promote my campaign and to get elected. The NI also sent a reporter to cover the NISG debates for that writer’s very first story – ever. I knew this year, something needed to change. In order for the NI to have meaningful coverage of the NISG elections, they needed a team that could share their experiences and have the inside knowledge of what was happening to properly inform students of what was going on.

I am excited to work with Trevor on this new endeavor. It is my hope that we can inform you of what your student government is and can do for you in the future. We will give you the background information, platform analysis, and my honest opinions on what will be best for the students at UNI. So stick around and keep checking back for updates!

Introducing Trevor

Hello my new blog readers!

Welcome to the Northern Iowan’s NISG elections blog. I want to make my first post an introduction of myself and the new project Adam Haselhuhn and I have undertaken.

I’m Trevor Boeckmann, a senior Economics major. I first became involved with NISG as a freshman in a Senate Committee spot. I ran to become the Senator of the College of Business that spring and won. The following year, I teamed up with Anthony Palomo to run for Student Body President. I lost that election to Adam and left NISG to form and run a handful of student organizations. Last month, I ran a write-in campaign to become an off-campus Senator and won. Now I’ve set my sights on reforming Senate and bringing coverage to this year’s NISG election before I leave UNI.

Outside of NISG, I’m the President of the UNI Freethinkers and Inquirers, the outgoing President of One Iowa of UNI, and this spring I’ll be starting a new student organization dedicated to free expression on campus. I’m also involved with the Pre-Law Club and an op-ed writer for the Northern Iowan.

When I became involved with NISG my sophomore year, the group was at a crossroads. After years of relatively little fighting, a new generation of students were swept into power and Senate was gridlocked. While some of the issues we bickered over were petty, many were proxy battles for what a student government should be. How much accountability did we owe to students? How involved should we become with student groups? How should we handle student money? The debates were fascinating — yet few students ever realized they were happening.

These discussions spilled over to the Presidential race that year, but became mired in rule breaking and court cases. The Northern Iowan tried to cover everything, but they didn’t possess the background knowledge to see what was really happening. They gave overviews that left students uninterested and rarely asked tough questions about platforms and the future of UNI. They were out-of-touch with what was really happening in these races.

After an uncontested race last year, it became obvious this year would be a real race. I decided I wanted to change things. I pitched the idea of having a blog to the Northern Iowan. My idea was to give the behind the scenes look. I know what candidates are looking for, because I was one. They’re building up Facebook friend lists right now; they want the biggest Facebook group by the end of the race; they’re agonizing over platforms and deciding how big they want to go on promotions.

So, here’s my promise to you for this election. I will do everything I can to give you news before you could get it anywhere else. I’ll show you what the candidates are watching so you can watch them, too. I’ll look up voting histories to let you know where candidates have stood. I’ll call out candidates for unrealistic platforms and tell you how policies will affect student groups. After all, a well-educated student body is the only way to assure well-educated votes.