Introducing the Candidates

Editor's Note: This post was modified at 2:30 p.m. on Feb. 9, 2012 to better reflect the involvement of Brendan Thompson and Trevor Monnier.

Below is some information and analysis on the candidates for president and vice president. This list is not necessarily complete; these tickets have all created student organizations for their campaigns, and there may still be more candidates. Candidates are unable to officially begin campaigning until 8 a.m. Monday.

Kyle Burns

• Facebook friends: 785
• Major: Business Administration
• Classification: Junior
• Activities: SAA President, Track, NISG Director of Athletic Affairs

Brendan Thompson

• Facebook friends: 697
• Major: Marketing
• Classification: Senior
• Activities: American Marketing Association executive, chairs online promotion for the American Advertising Federation, Track, Cross Country

What I like about this ticket: Kyle is the current president of the Student Admissions Ambassadors (SAA). Serving as the president of such a large, diverse, and exclusive organization puts Kyle well above the rest of the candidates in terms of executive experience. In addition, both Kyle and Brendan run track for UNI. Athletes typically aren’t targeted too vigorously in campaigns, so it will be interesting if this ticket can reach out to hundreds of their fellow athletes.

What I’m worried about with this ticket: As mentioned above, both of these candidates run track for UNI. Keeping up with Division I level workouts and classes is already a burden. I’m not sure either will have time to put in the 40 hours a week necessary for the position. Kyle and Brendan are going to have to make sacrifices with their sports if they want to do the job effectively, and it will be their job this campaign to prove that they are willing to do that. What if a track meet lands on the same day as a Board of Regents meeting? Leading the student body will have to come first, and they need to make that clear throughout the campaign if they want to win.

Jordan Bancroft-Smithe

• Facebook friends: 392
• Major: Philosophy and Music
• Classification: Senior
• Activities: NISG Chair of External Affairs, Philosophy Club, and Wind Symphony

KaLeigh White

• Facebook friends: 294
• Activities: NISG Senator, Sociology Club, and Student Leadership Center
• Classification: Sophomore

What I like about this ticket: Both Jordan and KaLeigh are very actively involved with NISG. Jordan serves as the chair of the External Affairs Committee and KaLeigh is one of the few senators with multiple semesters of experience with the Organization and Finance guidelines. Both speak up when others won’t and have a good track record of looking out for students. Additionally, Jordan’s involvement with music should help him get votes as happened for Spencer Walrath last year.

What I’m worried about with this ticket: Outside of NISG, these two aren’t as involved as the other candidates, and it shows in their Facebook friend counts. Both have yet to eclipse 500 friends, and I would say that it’s going to take four-digit friend counts to win an election between three tickets. They need to do a significant amount of campaigning to get their names out there. Can they do it? Expect this ticket to campaign the most of the three; it’s the only way they can make up for being less well known on campus.

Trevor Monnier

• Facebook friends: 891
• Major: Finance & Actuarial Science
• Classification: Senior
• Activities: RA in Campbell Hall, President of UNI Actuarial Club, Student Manager at Southwestern Company

Beth Monnier

• Facebook friends: 470
• Major: Economics
• Classification: Junior
• Activities: Campbell Hall senate, Presidential Scholar, and Pre-Law Club

What I like about this ticket: Both Trevor and Beth hail from Campbell Hall. I’ll be exploring that topic in further posts, but it’s worth noting how active the residents of Campbell Hall are. They vote more than any other dorm and it shows. Three of the last four winning NISG presidential campaigns have had a Campbell Hall resident on the ticket. Trevor is also the only RA in this election. RAs are excellent vote-getters, as they can motivate entire floors of students to vote. His connections with other RAs may prove pivotal to winning.

What I’m worried about this ticket: I don’t know what the campaign strategy will be outside of Campbell Hall. Neither candidate has NISG experience. Candidates usually tout such experience when visiting student groups, but what will this ticket do? For them, the platform will be the biggest way to make up ground outside of Campbell. If they want to win, they’re going to need an airtight platform with some ideas to really get students interested.