Three Tickets Vie for UC Presidency

Candidacy declarations for the Undergraduate Council Presidential Elections closed last night, revealing that two UC insiders—Danny P. Bicknell ’13 and Crystal D. Trejo ’13—will compete for the presidency, along with outsider candidate Samuel Melton ’13.

Bicknell, who is the UC Student Relations Committee chair, will be pairing up with UC Treasurer Pratyusha Yalamanchi ’13 as his vice-presidential candidate. The duo will be contending against Trejo, the UC Social Programs Task Force Chair, and her vice-presidential candidate David H.A. LeBoeuf ’13, UC Rules Committee Chair and a former Crimson news writer.

Both tickets boast years of UC experience, and each candidate in the lineup is a Council veteran in a high-level position.

“The fact that all of them have a lot of experience is good for the Council because it means they know how things function,” said UC Secretary Michael C. George ’14, who is also a Crimson news comper. “They know how to make tangible promises but stay visionary.”

Having both served on the Council since freshman year, Bicknell and Yalamanchi enter the competition with the most UC experience.

During his time as Student Relations Committee Chair, Bicknell has worked to streamline UC functions by improving the UC’s social communications, helping facilitate administrative and student communication through town hall discussions, and incorporating student input into the UC’s projects.

Yalamanchi, a third-year FiCom member and second-year Treasurer, has played a major role in shaping this year’s budget. According to her profile on the UC website, Yalamanchi hopes to develop policy guidelines for funding student-initiated J-term efforts, fund more cross-campus social space initiatives, and increase the transparency and accessibility of the grants process.

Trejo exemplifies similar leadership capabilities. She was selected to head the newly formed Social Programming Task Force in February upon its creation. The task force, which aims to improve social life on campus, organized a series of social events last semester, including a surprise carnival and “Lights Out,” a campus-wide dance.

LeBoeuf—a transfer student from Clark University in Worchester—is a relative newcomer who recently joined the Council last semester through a special election in Pforzheimer House. Despite his mid-year arrival to the UC, LeBoeuf immediately assumed his position as the Chair of the Rules Committee as well as a member of SPTF.

Melton enters the race without any experience on the UC, and the same is true for his vice-presidential candidate, Maxwell P. Campion ’13.

Despite the discrepancy in combined Council experience between the tickets, several UC members say they believe that this year’s presidential election will be a very close race.

“Being on the UC for three years doesn’t necessarily mean you have the most to bring to the table or that you are the most informed person,” said Christopher A. Devine ’13, UC Student Life Committee Chair. “Coming from a different school, David offers a different perspective and brings a lot of new and unique ideas, making it a fairly even race between the two UC tickets.” Members also predict that the elections will center around two key issues: social space and increased dialogue between students and administrators.

“I think that at end of the day, both tickets are going to focus on the same two issues that were the focus of last year’s election because those have become key topics that students and the Council have expressed concerned about,” George said. “It will just be up to the candidates to decide how to convince the student body that their vision is better than the other side.”

—Staff writer Rachael E. Apfel can be reached at rachaelapfel@college.harvard.edu