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Tuesday, March 19, 2024
The Observer

The Observer endorses Ebersol-Lieto

A year ago, when Charlie Ebersol ran for student body president and earned an endorsement from The Observer, he ran on a broad platform filled with lofty promises designed to inject energy into a static student life on campus. Ebersol lost, but remained an integral member of student government as the leader of the Student Union Board and played a key role in restructuring student government. Now, a year after his first bid for president, Ebersol returns to students with a more realistic idea of what he can accomplish. And in a year where no other ticket possesses either the student government experience or well-researched ideas, Ebersol and James Leito compose the ticket that will most effectively represent students.Ebersol and Leito's platform represents a wealth of ideas, but none is as intriguing as their pledge to place a student on the Board of Trustees. If accomplished - and Ebersol guarantees this will happen - it would mark one of the most significant achievements ever by a student government in giving students a direct voice on the University's highest body.Their campaign promises also include objectives - though students may not find all of them to be overly impressive - that are readily feasible. These include an off-campus security alert system, a concert to kick off bookstore basketball, Eucharistic adoration in the dorms and many more.Then again, compared to their opponents, Ebersol and Leito didn't have to be outstanding to earn The Observer's support. Adam Istvan and Karla Bell represent the best alternative to Ebersol and Leito, but also present some ideas that would not be palatable to students or easy to obtain, such as returning SYRs to dorms if students signed a pledge that they would not drink excessively. Mark Healy and Mike Healy had a handful of decent ideas, such as opening a DVD rental location on campus, but they lack a clear plan for their administration and suffer from presenting ideas like hot sandwiches in Grab 'N Go. Ryan Craft and Steve Lynch are so unprepared that they toss out campaign ideas as they pop into their heads.Istvan-Bell, Healy-Healy and Craft-Lynch, in one form or another, are running as student government outsiders who promise to change how student government is run. But with the dramatic internal changes scheduled to be completed on March 31, individuals who were integral in the restructuring would best utilize the revamped student government apparatus. That's what Ebersol and Leito can provide, and that's what students need.The Observer endorses Charlie Ebersol and James Leito for Notre Dame's 2004-05 student body president and vice president.