Candidates Give Face Time to ‘On Harvard Time’

While the candidates in the upcoming Undergraduate Council presidential election have filled their calenders with formal debates and endorsement meetings, they took also out some time last week to appear on the campus comedy news show “On Harvard Time.”

Talk of kissing babies and fashion sense took up nearly as much air time as discussions of platform issues such as ad board reform and UC party grants.

According to “On Harvard Time” founder and Executive Producer Derek M. Flanzraich ’10, the goal of the interviews was to depict the candidates as both campus politicos and real students.

“In this world where all of us sit at our computers and watch silly YouTube clips, what about watching stuff that happens at our school done by people that we know?” he said. “Never have the UC presidential candidates been shown in this way.”

Flanzraich, who also hosted this episode, began two of the interviews by asking the candidates to describe their platform in four words, to which Roy T. Willey IV ’09 responded, “student life, student voice” and Matthew L. Sundquist ’09 suggested “ad board reform, awesome.”

While each interview emphasized different facets of the candidates, Flanzraich presented each team with a “scenario” in which they were asked how they would respond if handed a baby on the campaign trail.

Willey eagerly took hold of the baby doll provided by Flanzraich as a prop, gently cradling it and kissing it on the forehead. Frances I. Martel ’09 also gladly accepted the doll, claiming that in embracing it, she hoped to “spread the Undergraduate Council love.”

Sundquist, however, did not kiss the baby and tried to refocus the conversation on issues relevant to the election, even though he asserted that “we like babies.”

As of press time, the Willey-Snow interview led with 1,202 hits on You-Tube, followed by the Sundquist-Sarafa clip with 954 and Martel’s interview with 716. Martel’s campaign manager, Laura N. Hensch ’08, took the place of her running mate Leo P. Zimmermann ’09, who did not show up for the interview.

Krista E. Weiss ’09 said she thought the interviews were “hilarious” and that they were able to present a more personal side of the candidates.

“I guess it was not really so much what they were for, but how they approached things, in terms of how they are as people,” Weiss said.