MIT Senior Voted 'Ugliest On Campus'

After staging a week-long campaign in which he beat out 10 other candidates, MIT senior William D. Felling, was voted this year's "Ugliest Man On Campus."

The winning candidate is chosen on the basis of how much money he or she earns for the charity organization, by buying students votes for a penny.

The contest, a 30 year tradition at MIT, is sponsored by a campus division of the national service fraternity Alpha Phi Omega (APO), which donates the campaign revenues to charity organizations.

This year APO allowed the contest to expand because of pressure to end its discriminatory practices and included women and even ugly stuffed animals.

Felling, who topped the list with $365.93, was followed by Joel Friedman who ran under the name "Fried Brain" and whose campaign generated $297.65, and "Mrs. Pig", whose candidacy was run by three MIT women, and raised $267.54. The contest receipts totaled $1766.17, which will be donated to a diabetes foundation.

"I bought the contest," said Felling, adding "It was an epitome of elections in the 1980s and now it'll be on my resume that I bought my first election while still in college."

Other candidates generally agreed with this diagnosis of Felling's campaign. Several competitors speculated that he may have received fewer votes than others but his supporters made larger contributions to his campaign. "He didn't seem to go out of his way to be ugly" said Amy Lee, one of the campaign managers for Mrs. Pig.

Natural Talent

But contest chairperson Lisa Maiocco denied rumors that Felling had won the title as "Ugliest Man" unfairly, "He had a lot of natural talent," she said.

According to Maiocco, candidates have traditionally engaged in a number of pranks during the week of campaigning to win votes.

She said that many contestants interrupt lectures, and run around campus in costumes "just trying to look ugly," She added, "it takes more than just looks to win--you have to have character."

"We don't just pick someone walking down the hall and say he's ugly, let's enter him in the contest," said Maiocco. "He has to set up his own candidacy before he can win," she added.

APO president Susan Bachrach said that the fraternity sponsors another traditional MIT contest every Spring. That contest is called "The Big Screw" where a member of the faculty or staff is awarded a 3-foot-long aluminum screw for having the distinction of "screwing" the students most.