UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Friday, April 15, 1994
3
THE ROAD TO VICTORY
YOU coalition found campaign a long haul
A significant part of the campaign is hanging posters. The YOU coalition put up 2,000 posters on campus and around town. At the end of every meeting, Sherman Reeves, candidate for student body president, asked every member to take five posters and hang them up.
Sherman Reeves and Eric Medill. Twenty-five hundred buttons in three styles. Two thousand posters. Six banners. More than 3,000 flyers and $2,900.
That's what it takes to win.
Reeves and Medill decided to run at the end of October. Reeves said that it had been a lifelong pursuit.
This year Reeves was the University Affairs chair and Medill was the Finance chair in Student Senate.
During the election, every person in each coalition was on campus trying to make sure that every warm-bodied student voted. Before this "crunch time," a lot happens.
The YOU coalition consisted of 51 people. Coordinating this many people was quite a task. There were constant meetings, and Reeves was constantly in contact with Medill, Travis Harrod, the campaign manager, and Jeff Russell, the treasurer.
"We were just completely elated when we started recruiting people. We could sit in Senate and look around, and everybody was ours," Reeves said.
Reeves said one of his biggest concerns was apathy, both within the coalition and from voters.
To keep the coalition motivated, Medill and Reeves used a variety of tactics. One night, coalition members met at the Kansas Union. They were told to wear tennis shoes. Reeves and Medill walked them from the Union to the base of Campanile hill. Once there, Reeves told them that the Campanille was their dream and that the first person to the top wanted it the most. They raced to the top, puffing and laughing.
Campaigns are tiring, Reeves said. Every waking moment he had went to the campaign.
"I went to physics lab on Wednesday because I have to," Reeves said. But that was the only class he had been to in two weeks except to turn in homework.
Both Reeves and Medill said they had not slept much during the last two weeks. Large dark circles under their eyes were testimony to their hard work.
In the final 48 hours, each member of the coalition hit the campus' pavement. They covered Wescoc Hall, the Union, Robinson Center and schools such as Engineering. Starting at 8 a.m., they passed out fliers and buttons. They walked, and they talked to try to gain votes. At 4:30 p.m. they called it a day. They were tired, sunburned and hoarse but felt as if they did some good.
It all ended in celebration, a party at the Sigma Chi fraternity house. The announcements came in bursts, each followed by an explosion of noise for each YOU member voted in. The tension ran high. Reeves and Medill counted the number of votes for each coalition. At every break in the music, the room went silent. The minutes passed, more beer was drunk. With the last set of announcements, Medill's hands were shaking so much that he had to put his beer down. Reeves had long before set his down. The announcer only had to say, "Student body president, Sher-" when the room exploded in noise and champagne.
Spending Limits
These amounts were the spending limits each coalition set for itself before election campaigning began. A coalition can set its limit for as high as it wants, but if it spends more than its limit during the campaign, it will be fine.
A.S.W.E.G.O!—$42,000 IGNITE—$100,000.69
YOU—$2,900 Independent—$1,350
The amounts each coalition actually spent were not
available yesterday.
Left: Members of the YOU coi tion address envelopes to freshmen residents of Gertrude Sellards Pearson-Corbin Hall. Above: On a late night early in the campaign, Sherman Reeves, YOU candidate for student body president, already is exhausted from endless meetings concerning platform ideas.
KANSAN
Source: Jennifer Ford, elections commissioner
Right: Senate debates seem as if they would be an important part of the campaign. They seem less so when only a handful of people shows up to listen to them. Above: In the middle of the YOU campaign, Sherman Reeves, candidate for student body president, and Eric Medil, candidate for Senate vice president, helped boost morale by racing the coalition members up Campanile Reeves told the coalition that the Campanile was their seat in Senate and that the person who got there first wanted it most.
Story and Photos By Amy Solt
Student Senate winners
President: Sherman Reeves
Vice President: Eric Medill
(YOU)
(XOU)
(YOU)
Architecture
Stacey Anderson (IGNITE)
M. Saqib Shaikh (YOU)
Business
Steve Simpson (YOU)
Holly Naifeh (YOU)
Education
Kim Cocks (YOU)
Kara Laricks (YOU)
Engineering
Engineering
Paul Wolters (YOU)
Justin Kelly (IGNITE)
Jeremy Desy (YOU)
Fine Arts
David R. Turner (IGNITE)
Staci Sill (YOU)
Graduate Arthur Yudelson (YOU)
Journalism
Gordon Ho (YOU)
Dan Hubbard (YOU)
Law
Margann Bennett (Indep.)
*TIE: Tyler Garretson (YOU)
Todd Lasala (YOU)
Nunemaker
Liberal Arts & Sciences
Mark Galus (YOU)
Sandra T. Olivas (YOU)
Jill Bechtel (YOU)
Shannon Newton (YOU)
Jeff Russell (YOU)
Blake Fix (YOU)
Melissa Leeland (YOU)
Erika Oliver (IGNITE)
Heidi Snyder (YOU)
Mike Stanley (YOU)
Ann Perry (YOU)
Lucy Ridgway (IGNITE)
Non-Traditional
Alan D. Pierce (IGNITE)
Collin Reynolds (YOU)
Nationalities
Lea Chediak (YOU)
Grey Montgomery (YOU)
David Stevens (YOU)
Jeni Miller (YOU)
Julianne Leeland (YOU)
Katy French (YOU)
Heather Austin (YOU)
Jason Kaplan (YOU)
Ashleigh de la Torre (YOU)
Carey Stuckey (YOU)
Jamie Johnson (YOU)
Fred Coulson (YOU)
Dan Hare (YOU)
Adam Mayer (YOU)
Off-Campus
Off-Campus
Jacqueline Flannigan (YOU)
Derek King (IGNITE)
Danielle Rand (IGNITE)
Arthur Chiu (IGNITE)
Ami Hizer (IGNITE)
Pharmacy
Monte R. Monfore (YOU)
Ming Chang (IGNITE)
Resident-at-Large
Adrian Lewis (IGNITE)
Social Welfare
Meg Bauman (YOU)
* In the case of a tie, a coin toss will be held on Monday.
The End Of The Road
Heather Lofflin / KAMBAN
Daron Sinkler, Shawnee senior, waits for the results of Student Senate presidential elections at the Free State Brewery and Pub, 636 Massachusetts St. Sinkler ran for president in the A.S. W.E. GOI coalition.
William Alix / KANSAN
Valerie Bontrager / KANSAN
Bill Gist, Leawood junior and Independent candidate for student body president, and Caroline Beckett, Louisburg senior and independent campaign manager, express their disappointment at their loss in the elections.
Chad Taylor, Topeka sophomore and IGNITE candidate for student body president, second from the left speaks with radio station KJHK after the announcement of the winners.