Nearing the Sunday deadline for voting in the WSA presidential election, several members of the WSA have publicly challenged candidate Adit Shah ’08.
The unprecedented public display of internal opinions began with an April 25 Wespeak written by WSA Community Outreach Committee (COCo) Chair Nora Connor ’07. Connor said that Shah had missed past WSA meetings and did not perform his duties on the WSA Educational Policy Committee.
The criticisms have gone beyond the Wespeaks page and have continued on Facebook and e-mail listservs. Shah has responded to the critiques, attributing them to particular representatives’ unwillingness to accept the change he has promised in his campaign.
“[The critics don’t want] someone who is not on the inside of the WSA and not one of the good ol’ boys,” said Max Rose ’08, Shah’s campaign manager.
Rose went on to describe his candidate as a “catalyst for change.” He said that Shah had missed meetings and made mistakes during his time on the WSA, but that those mistakes are assets.
“I think it’s important to have someone who can admit to having mistakes in the past,” Rose said. “We’ve welcomed all of these criticisms and arguments and addressed them.”
Connor said that she had decided to write the Wespeak to inform the student body about the two candidates and ensure that candidate Zach Kolodin’s ’07 work in the WSA Student Affairs Committee would not go unnoticed. She said that she does not understand Shah’s motivations for running, given his past experience on the WSA.
“I think in this case, unlike in other years, there is a stark difference between the candidates,” Connor said.
Current WSA President Jesse Watson ’06 said that he also does not understand Shah’s motivations for running. Watson said that Shah has not attended a meeting in the last several months.
“How does he even know what he wants to reform?” Watson said.
He said that he had a ninety-minute conversation with Shah about his candidacy and that the meeting did not calm his reservations.
“[Shah] didn’t know what he was getting into,” Watson said, adding that some of Shah’s campaign promises, such as providing coffee in the library, are not practical.
“That’s reducing student groups’ funding,” Watson said.
Shah said that Watson had made up his mind before meeting with him and used the entire time to try to stop him from running.
“It wasn’t really a meeting,” Shah said. “It was just Jesse trying to dissuade me from running against one of his friends.”
Shah said that the WSA leadership is a small group of WSA members who have opposed his campaign in order to support their friends and prevent drastic change.
“They’re all in their little circle,” he said. “They’re all friends and they want to keep their friends in power.”
Shah said that in addition to Rose, who sits on COCo, many members of the WSA general assembly do support him but are afraid to make their views public because they work under the members of the Executive Committee.
Kolodin said he appreciated the support of the WSA members who have voiced opposition to Shah, but that he was upset by the rumors that have been circulating.
“I wish the election wouldn’t have taken such a negative turn,” Kolodin said.
Watson said that during his time at the University there has never been a candidate for president that has been publicly challenged by other WSA members. According to Watson, the closest past experience was former WSA President Sohana Punithakumar’s ’04 endorsement of Karen Courtheoux ’05, who lost the presidential election to Emily Polak ’05.
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