Election ’08, HBS Style
Barack and Hillary haven’t made it to the HBS campus this year, but that’s okay — last week, I dropped in on four pairs of first-year MBAs hoping to serve as co-presidents of the Student Association (SA). The candidates went head-to-head with each other in Spangler Auditorium, offering a snapshot of the issues near and dear to the Class of 2009. The event, which organizers thought might be a first in HBS history (or at least the first in quite some time) included complimentary beverages and enough popcorn to fuel a movie marathon.
In classic B-school style, each pair set out to differentiate themselves from the competition. Mike McGlade and Adam Chepenik were most specific, touting post-graduation health insurance, more cross-section socializing, Blackberries for all students, and mid-term faculty performance reviews. They also waved Charlie Cards in the air; seems they’d already given away some of the new mass-transit passes and implied that students could expect more of the same if they should be the ones to oversee the SA budget.
Diversity, creativity, and transparency were the watchwords of Sunil Nagaroj and Serge Kassardjian. If elected, they promised a monthly president’s council with representatives pulled from the many student clubs and regular “office” hours in the Spangler Grille.
Jyoti Agarwal, running with Fred Smith, talked about working across university constituencies to effect change, from coordinating with Career Services to build a better job bank to creating Wikis and message boards with IT. They also hope to increase operating hours in Spangler and Baker.
The first half of the debate was a fairly sedate affair. One point of contention was the upfront $200 fee that incoming students pay to the SA. Used in part to help finance big social events like Holidazzle and the Newport Ball, as well as the “TGIF” get-togethers in between, a question from a current student government officer about raising the fee sparked a lively give-and-take about transparency.
“The SA lost several thousand dollars on a cruise and on double-booking a Halloween party venue last year,” said Drew Sloan, who was running with Matt Haldeman on a platform of bringing students and the SA closer together. Mike McGlade noted that the SA pays over $100 for their kegs and that the cheapest snack food from Restaurant Associates is chips and salsa, at $5 a head. He promised to bring down those costs.
When the floor opened for questions, the audience played hardball. Invoking “apathy and disillusionment” and noting the small audience of no more than fifty people, one student asked, “How low a voter turnout would it take for the SA to be dissolved and to get our $200 refunded?” Stymied, the candidates slowly responded by talking about improving the lines of communication between the SA and the student body, possibly cutting fees and the big events they help fund, and using their energy and passion to get people excited about the SA. It was also noted that historically voter turnout has been quite high, although no specific figures were given.
In the two days following the debate, voting was held until one presidential pair received 50 percent of the vote. “After a hotly contested final round, Fred Smith and Jyoti Agarwal have been elected co-presidents of the Student Association,” reported SA President Khary Barnes (HBS ’08) in an email. (Serge Kassardjian and Sunil Nagaroj were the runners-up.) Barnes added that 80 percent of the first-year students voted in this final round — a strong sign that student involvement in government, at least on the local level, is alive and well at HBS.
