UC Candidates Seek Backing

Johnny F. Bowman ’11 and his running mate for Undergraduate Council President and Vice President, Eric N. Hysen ’11, have secured the first two endorsements of the 2009 election season from the Harvard College Democrats and the Harvard Republican Club, kicking off a scramble for the seal of approval from the College’s largest student organizations.

The ticket garnered a third endorsement from the Environmental Action Committee last night.

George J.J. Hayward ’11 and Felix M. Zhang ’11 also received endorsements last night from the Black Students Association, the Association for Black Harvard Women, and the Organization of Asian American Sisters In Service, but the endorsements of the two largest Asian American student organizations, the Asian American Association and the Chinese Students Association, remain outstanding.

Each year, UC candidates flock to the largest political and cultural organizations on campus in an attempt to lock up the votes of their members, but UC President Andrea R. Flores ’10 said that based on her campaign experience, this strategy may fail to produce the expected results.

“Student group endorsements are a great way for student groups to get in touch with the UC,” Flores said about the campaign.

“But student group endorsements don’t equal votes necessarily.”

She added that the two groups would need to actively reach out to students in order to gain more votes.

“Both platforms are similar,” she said. “I think it’s going to depend on the get-out-the-vote strategy.”

Hayward-Zhang campaign manager Brian T. Ru ’11 said he felt optimistic about the endorsements the ticket has received.

“Endorsements are critical because we’re running a campaign that is focused on student groups,” Ru said about the early successes.

“We’re reaching out to a lot of groups that haven’t been reached out to before.”

With the balance sheets tied between the two tickets—both have garnered three of the six endorsements thus far—the campaigns are eager to break the deadlock with a number of large endorsements on the horizon.

“We have collected some of the biggest endorsements thus far, endorsements of student groups who have consistently predicted the winner of the UC elections,” said the Bowman-Hysen Campaign Manager Ashley M. Fabrizio ’11.

“[But] this election is unlike previous years in that its not just about student groups or social space or room reservations—though they are very important.”

Outsider ticket Robert G.B. Long ’11 and David R. Johnson ’11 released an e-mailed press statement on Monday announcing that they would be declining invitations to participate in any UC presidential debates. in the upcoming future.

“We perceive that these debates will only reiterate the ossified power structures that our opponents will claim to mitigate,” said the statement, which also protested the fact that the presidential candidates would presumably sit behind a table.

Breaking with the precedent set by her predecessor Matthew L. Sundquist ’09, Flores will offer her endorsement to one of the tickets in the next few days, according to a source close to the president.

—Staff writer Melody Y. Hu can be reached at melodyhu@fas.harvard.edu.