Rich Tao could not be convinced to make his first appearance at the Toad as YCC President, even despite the promise of scantily-clad Berzelius taps handing out milk and cookies. Instead, Tao went to his favorite booth at Yorkside with his new secretary, Jasper Wang. I’m not one to turn down a free chicken wing or two, so I held court with them and basked in the deep-fried post-election glory that eluded me last year.

News of Tao and Wang’s victory had only hit the street two hours earlier, but it was already obvious I was rolling with celebs. People in line for pizza whispered and pointed. Waitresses brought us free milkshakes. The guy from Ivygate who valiantly attempted to make fun of this blog even gave Rich his number.

Before long, three of Tao and Wang’s friends piled in the booth and suddenly, as one of them pointed out, I was the token white guy.

The friends – Hans, Yuen and James – had mostly encouraging things to say, remarking on the quality and quantity of the e-mails sent on Rich’s behalf. “[Ethnic Counselor] Funmi’s [Showole] was amazing,” Hans said, “and the Dwight Hall…that’s like the most legit endorsement you can get.” Take that YDN. By the way, first year in a while the YDN picked the whole slate (except UOFC chair…I keep acting like that race didn’t happen. Go BT!).

After letting Hans’ comment sink in, James chimed in, “I didn’t hear anything about you Jasper.”

“I won by 30 percent,” Jasper retorted. Man’s got a point.

I mentioned that Abby Cheung had run an impressively aggressive campaign for a freshman, but Yuen interrupted: “No man. Jon Wu. That kid was everywhere. Yes Wu Can. Wu Hoo…”

Jasper might not remember saying this: “A lot of people hate on Jon Wu. I’m just gonna let the haters hate.” He continued, “Rich, I’m gonna hate on you on JuicyCampus.”

Rich responded, “I’m gonna hate on you back. It’s anonymous so it’s all good, baby baby.” And if you don’t know, now you know.

Eventually, I had to depart to do a problem set, which apparently reminded Jasper that he had a Chinese presentation in less than nine hours worth 40 percent of his grade that he hadn’t started.

He brushed that dirt off his shoulder: “Think I’ll go play Super Smash Brothers.”
Update 12:36 p.m. – Jon Wu isn’t the first Jon Wu to run for treasurer. Last year, Jon Wu ’09, roommate of the infamous Ned Fulmer who should probably just go home or at least not to Wednesday Night Toad’s, finished third behind Harrison Marks and Carrie Nguyen (Hi if you’re reading this in Spain, Carrie). Wu ’09 – wait, they could be like the Bushes, 41 and 43, except ’09 and ’10 – was a PTPer: baller on FCC, deadpan humor in YCC meetings, and giver of sick handshakes at SigEp parties. But somewhere between Yes Wu Can and the YDN endorsement, ’09 became Jon Wu #2 and ’10 took control of the top spot. ’09 seemed to be taking it in stride. At least people who google him will think he won now.

Update 12:38 p.m. – Ran into Colin Leatherbury walking out of Yorkside. I tried to get a witty quote from him, but I couldn’t really understand what he said, so I just smiled and laughed like I heard him.

Update 12:39 p.m. – Big embrace from Zach DeWitt. “Thanks for the shoutout on the blog.” Wow. People actually read this?

The elections went down exactly as I predicted they would.

Congrats those who won and also those who ran… it takes balls to put your name out there.

-Ryan

Updated at 9:26 p.m. I completely forgot about the UOFC race. I’m surprised someone remembered it. Thank you anonymous commenter.

Your new YCC E-board:

President Rich Tao

Vice-President Emily Schofield

Secretary Jasper Wang

Treasurer Jon Wu

YSAC Chair Colin Leatherbury

UOFC Chair Bryan Twarek

By Zach Marks

8:55 p.m. - This is what it all comes down to. This is what separates the men from the boys, the women from the girls, Taber from me. The last five minutes.

I’m here at Rudy’s with YCC President Rebecca Taber and her harem of fine young gentlemen callers she likes to call the Election Committee. I’ll be liveblogging the election returns as they pour in to see whose last-minute text messages and e-mails paid off and didn’t.

8:57 p.m. - A pitcher of Blue Moons arrives. The final votes are being tallied. Some races are dangerously close to that run-off/not-run-off border. OMG I just spilled my beer.

8:59 p.m. - Okay. I cleaned up my beer, but my ww key is sticking.

9:00 p.m. - It’s over. Ladies and gentlemen, you have a new YCC President and his name is Richard Tao. Emily Schofield will be serving a second term as VP. Jasper Wang was able to capitalize off his legendary last name to become secretary, and Jon Wu rounds out the e-board, adding yet another title, YCC treasurer, to his already stacked resume. Colin Leatherbury will get a chance to plan another Spring Fling as YSAC chair next year. If he doesn’t get Jay-Z, I’m getting Travis Long to impeach his ass.

9:02 p.m. - Taber and the boys (Aniket Shah, Geoff Buller and Sam Hafer) just stepped out to call the candidates. I want to follow. I have to watch their beer. I’m such a punk.

9:08 p.m. - I get a call from Rich Tao. I’m on the phone with him. He has a question. A serious question, he insists. “Should I call Harrison or wait til he calls me?” I recommend waiting til 9:20 and then doing the honors. I hollered at Taber the minute after I got off the phone with last year’s VP, Steve Engler, and I imagine Harrison and Katrina will be similarly eager to congratulate Rich.

9:16 p.m. - Aniket’s buying frites. He can’t decide what sauces to order. We let this man monitor a YCC election and he can’t pick Samurai on his own. WTF?

9:18 p.m. - Text message from Ryan Russell. “How the hell did I not get invited to Rudy’s? This some bullshit.” Well, Ryan. Because you’re a loser.

9:21 p.m. - Aniket buys me a drank. (To the tune of the T-Pain song.)

9:24 p.m. - Test message from Katrina Landeta: “Tell Rich to answer my calls!! Shoutout to my fav blogger.” She gave me a shoutout! She wrote me a smiley! I wish there was an emoticon for those dimples…

9:28 p.m. - Anonymous commenter reminds me there was a UOFC chair race. Congrats Bryan Twarek! BT is the student manager of the Saybrook Dining Hall. He always keeps the granola flowing for carb-fiends like myself. I’m sure he’ll do the same with Yale’s money for student organizations.

9:34 p.m. - Anonymous member election committee’s commenting on the racial makeup of the past few YCC presidents…”Taber, you’re white. Before you, [Steven] Syverud. White. Andrew Cedar. White. Elliot Mogul. White.”

9:35 p.m. - Taber’s switching heads from race to consulting. “The YCC-McKinsey connection is crazy. Cedar, Mogul, Syverud’s VP Marissa Brittenham, me, Zach, Schofield, [VP from a few years ago] Nirupam Sinha…Aniket, would you ever consider selling your soul?” Aniket: “Well…I’m working at Goldman Sachs…”

9:40 p.m. - Wow. I can’t believe I forgot last year’s president, Emery Choi, in that 9:35 post. Hi Emery.

9:41 p.m. - Taber has a question for the populace: “Hot Tomato’s and Toad’s or senior essay?” Discuss.

9:47 p.m. - Zack Abrahamson, YDN’s legit version of me, calls Aniket for quotes. Man, I been had them quotes. Zack, you don’t have shit on this Zach.

9:52 p.m. - Whoops. Wrong Zach. DeWitt.

By Zach Marks

In my post about the treasurer race, I tried to talk a little policy in addition to the usual horserace commentary, noting that Jon Wu’s promise to make Campus Cash, a plan to get Yale IDs accepted as credit cards at New Haven vendors, didn’t really bring anything new to the table. Danny Seifert, a candidate for VP last year and treasurer the year before, has been working on the Campus Cash project for the last two years and is thus much more qualified to comment on Wu’s campaign and make snarky comments should he choose. Here’s an e-mail he asked I post on the blog:

Jon Wu is definitely a legit candidate for Treasurer, but he might making empty promises about bringing Campus Cash to school in the

fall– or, at least, about his role in the process. Obviously, it’s a popular issue, so it makes sense for candidates to trumpet their dedication, but I think this one’s a bit of a stretch. Here’s an update on the project, in case anyone is interested:

I’ve been working on the Campus Cash project– it will probably be called Bulldog Bucks when it debuts, but the name is still up for debate (YCC survey, anyone?)– since freshman year, and although progress has been ridiculously slow, all signs point to a fall implementation.

Victor Stein, the administrator in charge of the program, said that responsibility for development of Bulldog Bucks has passed from his team to a third-party vendor, CBORD Group, which specializes in on- campus card software. Since Yale uses the Odyssey software system for its dining halls, CBORD is the best choice to develop a compatible card-payment system. Check out the system here: http://universities.cbord.com/solutions/solution.asp?id=14

In order to make CBORD’s system truly comprehensive at Yale, several YCC members met with Mr. Stein throughout the year. In essence, we combined Yale’s various, confusing payment options (e.g. EliBucks, Flex Points, bursar) into one declining-balance account which covers laundry, printing, movie rentals at WHC, and a variety of off-campus restaurants. The meal plan is on a separate account, also stored on the ID card. In the future, Yale will likely get vending machines that accept our ID cards.

The program is long overdue, but full implementation requires a massive amount of new hardware and software, and thus considerable work from ITS. The complexity of the program discouraged the Yale administration for about two years, and it was only at the end of last year that they agreed, in principle, to explore the idea. 

Believe me, I want Campus Cash more than anybody, so I’ll make damn sure the system rolls out in the fall.

There’s a lot of work left to be done once the system actually goes into effect, and Jon Wu might be a factor in tweaking Campus Cash, but most of the groundwork has already been laid. Like I said, I think Wu can be a very solid Treasurer, but he might be embellishing his role on a few YCC projects. Then again, it’s never too early to starting beefing up that resume.