Yale Daily News

Abigail Cheung ’11 wants people to talk to her — and she promises to listen to them, saying her experience and patience will serve her well as the Yale College Council vice president.

“I’m really receptive to hearing what other people have to say,” she said Wednesday. “I try to channel my efforts into helping them.”

Cheung identified Yale’s student body as the YCC’s most valuable resource. Talking to other students has always shaped her YCC contributions, including the Yale Votes! panel series and registration drive, dances and financial aid initiatives, she said.

“Everyone here has something amazing to bring to the table,” she said.

Coming to Yale from Vancouver, Canada, Cheung speaks three languages and participates in a Dwight Hall language development initiative and the women’s crew team, among other activities.

Cheung has served as Freshman Class Council vice chair, a Timothy Dwight representative to YCC this year and Sophomore Class Council liaison to the YCC, spending many hours in YCC committees. Cheung made an unsuccessful bid for YCC secretary in last year’s elections.

Mindful that the YCC vice president runs the council’s internal affairs, Cheung said she has accumulated a thorough knowledge of its workings and a sense of the issues that matter. She speaks about policy, events and administrative issues with equal passion. In a world without a Yale Student Activities Committee, she said, she would push YCC to dedicate more effort to planning events.

“Issues can’t be publicized without a lot of events,” she said.

Cheung said her experience in both policy and event planning differentiates her from opponent Brian Levin ’11, whom she described as being “really engaged on policy issues.” Although she was reluctant to criticize Levin, she said she had committed herself more fully to project committees than Levin has.

“I think he’s kind of failed to look at the other side of YCC and hasn’t really been involved in events planning,” she said. “I think I’ve already gotten the mentality of focusing on events.”

Levin maintained Thursday night that he has played a significant role in event planning and that, moreover, his policy experience is more substantive.

On the policy side, Cheung singled out academic minors, gender-neutral housing and financial aid reform as ongoing priorities. As an international student, she said, she is dedicated to reducing self-help hours and increasing travel allowances in student aid packages.

Despite her commitment to policy work, Cheung said she believes it is the president’s role to lead policy initiatives. She envisions the vice president mediating discussions, reaching out to students and helping other YCC officers.

“I see myself as being a really good support person,” she said — one reason, she added, for her decision to run for vice president and not for president.

Cheung’s suitemate Lynn Wang ’11 described Cheung as patient and genuinely interested in helping everyone she meets, citing one occasion on which Cheung stepped in, unasked, to help her organize a banquet, though Cheung did not belong to the organization and was overloaded with work.

Cheung is a double major in international studies and political science.

In a race that will decide the future of the Yale College Council’s internal management, Brian Levin ’11 is counting on experience and dedication to win him the right to succeed two-term Vice President Emily Schofield ’09.

Levin said he hopes to leverage two years of experience in student government in order to make academic minors a part of the Yale curriculum and give students the option of gender-neutral housing, among other proposals.

Levin said he is counting on his demonstrated commitment to the work of the YCC to win over voters.

“I’m not one of those guys that joins a lot of groups,” Levin said. “I really made YCC my priority this year working on things like gender-neutral housing, discussion-section reform and academic minors.”

Levin stumbled across what would become his main work this year — a 30-page proposal to institute academic minors — by going door-to-door in Silliman College, soliciting feedback from his constituents. Levin spent many long nights in Au Bon Pain working on that report, Morse YCC Representative Hannah Kieschnick ’11 said.

“He doesn’t join just to join,” Kieschnick said. “[YCC] is his passion and his main activity.”

Levin said that commitment to policy sets him apart from opponent Abigail Cheung ’11. While Cheung has worked on initiatives with Levin, he said, “I’ve led them all.”

Cheung said her background offers a holistic combination of experience in issues and events-planning. In the latter, Cheung said, she distinguishes herself from Levin.

“I’ve also been involved in other project groups and Brian’s only involved in one right now,” Cheung said. “The second one [first being academic minors] I’m involved in is completely events-based.”

Levin said his work with last year’s Harry Potter dance and this year’s Unity Ball show his aptitude for event-planning.

When Levin is not working to reform discussion sections, broaden student coalitions or institute academic minors, Levin can often be found impersonating celebrities, listening to T-Payne or Bob Marley, or drinking a grande peppermint hot chocolate from Starbucks.

“He was never just another member in the group, but took the initiative,” Ezra Stiles YCC Representative Vidur Sehgal ’10 said.

Levin said he believes that next year the YCC should increase transparency, ensure a smooth merger with YSAC and rally more student involvement for ad-hoc committees like this year’s Student Dean Search and New Residential College Advisory committees, both bodies on which Levin served.

“[These] committees showed me that there are so many students not in YCC that are genuinely interested in these issues,” Levin said. “The more students involved, the more the work is strengthened, and the administration is more compelled to listen.”

Open communication and leadership is not new to Levin, said his mother, Susan Levinson, who first saw her son as a “natural born leader” while he was attending middle school in Chicago.

“I just wish I could vote for him,” Levinson said.

Treasurer candidate Colin Adamo ’10 said he is confident about his bid to “discover treasure as treasurer.”

As a Yale College Council outsider running for the first time, Adamo is looking forward to “figuring out the inner workings” of Yale’s student government. Despite running against two experienced Freshman Class Council representatives — FCC representative Yanni Legmpelos ’12 and FCC chair Adam Thomas ’12 — Adamo is laid-back and ever-joking.

“It’s between me and Freshman One and Freshman Two,” he said of his opponents. “I think I’ve got this.”

And when asked Thursday if his candidacy were a prank — as is popularly believed — and what he would do if he were elected, Adamo responded: “Well I plan on winning so we’ll cross that bridge. And underneath will be treasure.”

Adamo said he is overqualified for the position, citing that he has worked around 10 campus jobs, including for the Yale Center for British Art and the Yale University Art Gallery. He has also worked for the Film Studies Center.

“All I had to do was sit around,” Adamo said. “But I had to be on time, at least.”

And Adamo’s plan to raise money: Abolish the Poland Spring water containers in offices and cut the funding for basement vending machines. Basically, he said, he wants to cut convenience so Yale has more money to spend on other things.

Adamo said his latest financial project was saving money for his spring break trip to Florida by scraping pennies, eating canned tuna and not eating out. He also boasts that he is adept at cutting costs to save money, a good characteristic for a future treasurer, he said.

“My mission is the to find the little pockets of treasure that we can hold on to,” Adamo said, adding that the Yale community is being too paranoid about the economic downturn. “We lost $8 billion, but we still have billions upon billions of dollars.”

Remarked Adamo: “Obama had change. But I’ve got treasure.”

Candidate for YCC Treasurer Yanni Legmpelos ’12 modeled his campaign video after a late-night infomercial: Upon receiving a “YanniStrong” wristband, Yalies each acquire various superpowers and skills, from a muscular physique to poker-table prowess.

The YouTube spot, Legmpelos said, is modeled after the 2008 campaign video made by current YCC presidential hopeful Jonathan Wu ’11, “Yes Wu Can.” Wu’s campaign, Legmpelos said, first inspired him to pursue student government. As soon as the school year began, Legmpelos ran for and won a spot on the Freshman Class Council and joined the International Students Organization and the Yale European Undergraduates.

By attending many YCC meetings since the end of the fall semester, he said, he has been involved in a couple of YCC projects, such as advocacy for academic minors. Legmpelos said he now wants to expand his role in serving and connecting the Yale community.

“I will be a facilitator,” Legmpelos said. “I will have my office hours, and whoever you are, you just come and say, ‘I want to do this thing.’ Tell me what you need.”

Legmpelos, a prospective engineering and economics major, said he will work on implementing a few reforms: making YCC budget allocation more transparent, providing more resources to undergraduate groups, and reaching out to and uniting undergraduates, graduate students and the New Haven community.

“I think I have the skills to be an accessible, go-to guy to manage the account and reach out to the students,” he said.

But despite his enthusiasm, two of Yale freshmen interviewed Wednesday said they have doubts about Legmpelos’ ability to serve on the YCC executive board.

“He is very energetic, and he has very good intentions,” said an FCC member who worked on the Freshman Olympics with Legmpelos, “but sometimes he gets distracted in his numerous activities and doesn’t have the time to commit.”

Yanni hails from Thessaloniki, Greece. He was class president until 11th grade, when he fought to preserve a park with a coalition of students.

Having served as the chair of the Freshman Class Council and class representative on the Branford College Council, Adam Thomas ’12 said he believes he is now ready to tackle the task of being YCC Treasurer.

Thomas credited his oversight of the FCC for preparing him to be the best candidate for the treasurer: “I have run a council, built close relationships and coordinated events as poart of the FCC board.”

Building consensus within the Yale community is the key feature of Thomas’ platform. If elected, he said he would implement polls and interviews to garner campus input on how the YCC budget ought to be spent. In addition, Thomas said he hopes to increase funding for smaller student organizations and work toward a campus debit-account system that will consolidate currently separate laundry and printing accounts.

“At the moment there isn’t enough money being put toward campus events,” he said. “Students who are throwing these events need to have an easy way to figure out whom to contact so they can really throw a great party.”

During his term as FCC chair over the past academic year, Thomas helped organize the Freshman Olympics, built rapport with the Old Campus Fellows and worked with the YCC to improve the conditions of the frequently broken and overcrowded laundries on Old Campus, he said.

Shelley Foran ’12, who served alongside Thomas on FCC, said the drum enthusiast has the interests of the freshman class at heart.

“Adam brings out the best in the people he works with,” she said, citing his enthusiasm for last weekend’s Freshman Olympics.

While Thomas said he sees leadership, humility and commitment to service as his strengths, the Dallas native conceded to being an impulsive decision maker.

Indeed, Thomas once got both his father’s car and the tow truck meant to free it stuck in the mud.

“Sometimes I rush into something without giving it full consideration,” he laughed.

Having served on the Freshman Class Council and Yale College Council, Mike Bronfin ’11 envisions his role as YCC secretary as being the “go-to person” connecting Elis to the Yale administration.

Citing his experience and organizational skills as his key strengths, Bronfin said he hopes to strengthen links between student groups and the Office of New Haven and State Affairs, and streamline campus communications by establishing a updated YCC Web site.

“I feel that improving communication between the YCC and Yale students is crucial especially since YSAC is now dissolved,” he said.

Bronfin — a self-proclaimed epicure from New Orleans who brings his own spice shakers to dinner — describes himself as a driving force behind the Iron Chef Yale cooking challenge and last month’s Mental Health Week. As a YCC representative from Jonathan Edwards College, Bronfin has also worked on Eli Days 2009, the YCC Discounts program and helping improve shuttle service to Science Hill.

Unlike many of the other candidates in the secretary race, Bronfin argues, he has the practical know-how to implement his agenda of helping student groups work together: Iron Chef Yale was co-sponsored by Yale TV and the Yale Globalist, while Mental Health Week supplemented e-mail announcements with poster boards in order to better reach out to campus.

Bronfin believes such experience gives him a clear edge in the race for the YCC secretary position.

“Some of them have decent ideas but none of them are on the YCC,” he explained, “It is very difficult to be on the YCC executive board if they don’t know how it is run.”

Of Bronfin’s competitors, Rustin Fakheri ’12 is an associate member of the YCC, while both Victoria Gilcrease ’12 and Reese Faust ’10 are self-described “outsiders,” having never run for a student government position before.

Nevertheless, Bronfin concedes that for all his experience and commitment to the YCC, he is not perfect. He cited a tendency to take on more than he can handle and the potential to react adversely to pressure as his weaknesses.

He is also among the few to have fainted in two countries at once. “I once passed out on the bridge over the Niagara Falls,” he said.

Rustin Fakheri ’12, who said he always carries a small, leather-bound notebook to keep track of his ideas, is running to be the next secretary of the Yale College Council.

His overarching goal is to create stronger lines of communication between the YCC, Yale students and the administration, he said.

“Students are very politically interested but many don’t know how the YCC affects them,” said Fakheri.

(Fakheri is a staff reporter at the News.)

Fakheri’s motivation for running is a commitment to serving his peers, he said. In the fall, Fakheri ran to represent Branford College on the YCC and, though he lost the election, he was appointed to participate as an associate member.

“I want to serve my friends,” Fakheri said. “I want to serve Yale students.”

Fakheri said he thought that all three of his competitors were equipped to fill the role of secretary, adding simply that he would be able to do it best because of his experience serving on the YCC. But while Fakheri is only an associate member, one of his opponents, Mike Bronfin ’11, has served as the YCC representative for Jonathan Edwards College all year. Asked what else separated his candidacy from that of his three competitors, Fakheri also cited his web design skills and sociability.

During his time on the YCC this year, Fakheri co-authored the bicycle sharing proposal, which has yet to secure funding, and is currently working on a proposal about campus security. As YCC Secretary, Fakheri said he will be committed to upholding the council’s current strengths, while also improving its weaknesses.

He plans to distribute a weekly digest with updates about YCC projects, consolidate information about registration and funding for student organizations on an easy-to-access Web page, and expand the YaleStation to include more communication channels.

Fakheri said his previous experience — as well as his computer literacy — makes him well-suited for the job.

Before Yale, Fakheri served as secretary at University High School in Normal, Ill. He also served as a youth advisor to the Normal City Council.

Ian Panchevre ’12, a member of Fakheri’s campaign staff, said though many students consider the secretary role to be insubstantial, Fakheri will demonstrate that this is not the case.

“Rustin will make the secretary position the focal point between the YCC and the student body,” Panchevre said.

Fakheri enjoys studying political science, economics and mechanical engineering.

Reese Faust ’10 — managing editor of Rumpus Magazine, member of the fraternity Delta Kappa Epsilon, martial artist and cheerleader — is running to replace Jasper Wang ’10 as Yale College Council secretary.

Championing a no-nonsense attitude, Faust promises to bring an outsider’s perspective to the YCC board. Faust said that as a “hardened cynic,” he will challenge the views of other board members in order to create a more balanced student government.

“I think that the YCC has a reputation for being its own kind of inner circle,” Faust said. “I think it’s good that people know that I’m the closest you can get to an outsider.”

The Silliman College junior, however, has no previous secretarial experience or understanding of the inner workings of the YCC, but he said he is interested in learning about the council and the way it functions. His enthusiasm about running for the board comes from his hope that the position will be, above all, fun, though he added this remark was not meant to discredit the student council in any way.

Faust said his ability to “write things down” provides him with the skills required to be YCC secretary.

“I’m a secretary,” Faust said. “I write things down. No more. No less.”

But Wang said, as secretary, that he is in charge of communications, outreach and, in some ways, public relations. He added that all four of the executive board members make decisions and set the agenda for what the council does each year. Asked whether he was taking the campaign seriously, Faust said he was “very offended” by those who doubt his commitment.

Benjamin Brody ’10, one of Faust’s suitemates this year, said Faust is not afraid to try new things and he has always been successful in his endeavors to make an impact.

He also pointed to Faust’s philosophy major and his involvement with DKE as examples of his varied interests. Faust is always committed to the activities he takes on, Brody added.

“He doesn’t do things half way,” he said. “He has this incredible enthusiasm for everything he does.”

Noah Gentele ’10, another one of Faust’s suitemates, said that Faust was one of the “most surprising characters” he has met at Yale. After Gentele said Faust has the perfect personality to serve on the YCC, he boasted of Faust’s love of comic books.

“Who doesn’t want a YCC secretary who reads comic books and has studied the philosophy of Batman?” Gentele said.

Faust is from Kentucky and owns a poodle.

Although she is new to student politics, Victoria Gilcrease ’12, a candidate for Yale College Council secretary, believes her outsider perspective is part of why she will be more than a glorified minutes-taker.

“It gives me an Obama-like aura of being an underdog,” she said. “I think my candidacy might be a breath of fresh air.”

A Houston, Texas, native, Gilcrease feels the YCC has the potential to positively affect the community, and she wants to be a part of it.

Though Gilcrease has never run for a student government position before attending Yale, she is confident about her decision to run. She said she believes that college is a better environment for student government.

“Since coming here, I have felt more like I personally could make a difference,” she said. “Yet [Yale] students aren’t making as much of a difference as I’d want them to.”

Gilcrease admitted that her opponents all have “good ideas”. But, other than being the only female running for secretary, she said, her creativity, vision and cultural background all help make her unique.

“My Mexican background and Native American background put me in touch with the cultural groups,” she said. “I feel like I generally have different experiences and different visions that set me apart from different candidates.”

Gilcrease said she wants to target three groups: the New Haven community (through community service within the residential college system), Yale staff (through meet and greet events), and students and YCC members (by revamping the Web site).

“The Web site is useful if you use it,” she said. “But if you don’t, you have no idea what’s going on.”

Additionally, Gilcrease said she knows she can work with the executive board to help the YCC live up to the standards of being the liaison between the students and the administration.

“I can’t make projects [like Spring Fling] happen, but I can be an important link in making these projects happen,” she said. “The job is about communication.”

“So am I your favorite?” Mathilde Williams ’11, one of two candidates making a bid for the newly created YCC position of Director of Events, asked as she pushed open the Silliman College gates.

This easygoing tone is emblematic of the way the Silliman sophomore characterizes her campaign; it is also the feature she said she feels most distinguishes her from her opponent, Natasha Sarin ’11. Williams is making a decidedly “simple” bid, as she called it, hoping her open-mindedness and enthusiasm will come through in personal interactions.

“I’m not that intense,” she said. “I’m not going to make a Web site about myself.”

A focus of her platform, Williams said, is her desire to revive Yale’s old, lighthearted traditions, such as the Wooden Spoon, a prize given to the Eli with the lowest grade point average.

“The thing that’s really distinctive about [Williams] is that she’s really dedicated to bringing back the old Yale,” current YSAC Chair Colin Leatherbury ’09 said. “She’s done a lot of research on past traditions — like the Winter Formal and Bladderball — and she’s worked hard to bring them back.”

Based on the success of this year’s Spring Fling Committee, which was co-chaired by Sarin, Williams said she also wants to organize more event committees to involve non-YCC students in the planning process.

Williams, although initially apprehensive about the dissolution of YSAC, said she is now excited by the prospect of a joint YCC-YSAC body. Williams said the new format, with its integrated 22-person committee, has the potential to provide increased manpower.

“Being on YSAC this year, I’ve seen it through thick and thin,” she said. “I know what works and what doesn’t.”

Williams ran for YSAC chair last year as a freshman, and lost, but was elected as the Silliman College representative to YSAC.

“She has tremendous communication and organization skills, and she knows how to ensure everyone has a good time,” Drew Ruben ’11, who serves alongside Williams as co-captain for the club squash team, said. “She hasn’t dropped the ball once — no pun intended.”

Perhaps Williams summarizes her campaign best on her Facebook election homepage: “YALE is a PARTY, and I want to throw it.”

Though the role of director of events is new to the YCC, Natasha Sarin ’11 is already enthusiastic about its potential.

“I would take a lot of pride in doing a good job and coming up with new events that can become Yale traditions,” she said.

Sarin brings two years of Yale leadership experience to the table. As a freshman, she served as both Freshman Class Council secretary and representative, as well as on both the Calhoun’s Student Activities Committee and College Council — a role she continued sophomore year, when she also took on the responsibilities of YSAC Representative and Spring Fling co-chair.

This experience, Sarin said, is what distinguishes her from her opponent — and will be the key to her effectiveness as director of events.

“Especially with YCC and YSAC merging and with this new concert committee being formed, it’s going to take ... a seasoned veteran,” she said. “I come from a position where I can make promises and I can say things in my campaign and I know that I have the ability to execute them.”

Sarin is running on a four-dimensional platform.

First, she plans to solicit and incorporate more student input into YCC-sponsored activities by attending residential college Student Activities Committee meetings and receiving student opinions directly.

Secondly, Sarin wants to increase Yale’s events by 50 percent through collaboration with other campus groups. One idea, she said, is to hold a YCC/YCouture Project Runway episode featuring student designers.

Thirdly, Sarin wants to focus on implementing more frequent and smaller events to augment YCC’s major events. For example, Sarin hopes to subsidize tickets and meal prices for a monthly Criterion-movie-and-a-dinner night.

Sarin also plans to initiate a Yale Homecoming, an idea proposed to her by Courtney Pannell (Pannell is a staff reporter for the News.)

“Homecoming is everyone’s favorite activity in high school,” Sarin said. “We have a football team coming into next season with a new coach, new passion, and new energy — we should run with it!”

Finally, Sarin intends to begin planning for next year’s Spring Fling in October of the fall semester. She believes this will help expand both the charity and sustainability components she introduced to the event this year in her capacity as co-chair.

Five days ago, Erin Fackler ’11 sent e-mails to friends and acquaintances requesting the 100 signatures required to be considered a candidate for chair of the Undergraduate Organizations Funding Committee. The catch: She is currently in China, studying abroad at Peking University.

“My time here has been amazing because it has allowed me to realize what is really important to me back at Yale,” Fackler said in an e-mail from Beijing. “One of these things is the UOFC.”

Fackler said she wants to use her organizational skills and experience on the UOFC — gained during her first-semester stint as UOFC’s director of capital equipment — to make the funding process more efficient for student groups.

Lauren Noble ’11, who worked with Fackler on a UOFC application, commended Fackler for her understanding of the “often hard-to-navigate UOFC bureaucracy” and her commitment to reforming the organization.

Fackler said her intimate knowledge of the funding process — which she said she helped design along with UOFC Chair Bryan Twarek ’10 — makes her better qualified to serve as chair than her competitor, Murong Yang ’12. (Yang has served as a UOFC officer and director of capital equipment second semester.)

In a Skype conversation early Thursday morning, Fackler said she has noticed several problems with how the UOFC functions. In an attempt to eliminate common mistakes on applications, the UOFC must become an accessible source of information for students, Fackler said. Student groups should know what banks are “group-friendly” and avoid unnecessary bureaucracy.

“I want to create a list of most of the expected costs for planning large events, such as dining hall rental costs or the cost of a security guard,” Fackler said. “I also think people should be aware of Yale requirements for events, such as clean-up costs.”

Fackler said she wants to give students more time to plan UOFC-funded $5,000 events because she has found that students have difficulty planning a campuswide event in a month or less.

Along with her involvement in each step of the UOFC funding process, Fackler is an active member of the Yale Political Union, where she served as treasurer of the Conservative Party. This past year, she worked at the Yale Conference and Event Services and the British Art Gallery library.

After one year on the Undergraduate Organizations Funding Committee, Murong Yang ’12 said she thinks she is ready to lead it.

Yang said she is running on a platform with four main tenets: She hopes to make applying for funding more convenient while publicizing and improving the “2k” and “5k” events financed by the UOFC. Additionally, Yang said she would automate and expand the UOFC’s capital equipment program — a resource for student groups looking to rent speakers, projectors, spotlights or other equipment. Lastly, Yang said the UOFC should reach out to student groups and make clear which expenses the UOFC will fund — and which they will not.

Yang said her experience on the UOFC this year — as an officer and director of capital equipment second semester — makes her a good candidate for chair, especially because the equipment program moved to a new location in the spring, she said.

With the current economic downturn, Yang said she expects the UOFC to see major changes next year which could leave fewer funds for student groups. Being involved with the organization during the crisis, she said, adds experience to her ticket.

“I’ve been with the board through this tough time,” she said. “I would be a good chair because I like to follow through.”

Her only opponent, Erin Fackler ’11, served as director of capital equipment during the fall and said she helped design “the framework” for running the program.

UOFC Chair Bryan Twarek ’10 said he does not think the amount of money UOFC either allocates or receives will change. Twarek added that being chairman is more work than he expected, and that even making small changes can be difficult.

Yang has worked in the financial sector and raises funds for several student groups, including the Chinese American Students’ Association, Chinese Undergraduate Students at Yale and Elmseed Enterprise, a New Haven micro-credit organization.

“Since I’ve done so much funding myself, I really understand the frustrations of getting funds,” she said.

Yang said her determination and responsibility, and the fact that she is “a tad OCD,” will help her lead next year’s board. But interest in money has always been especially important to Yang.

“My name means ‘financially successful,’” she said.