By Elizabeth Dudek
Smith Anderson waited two hours outside West Village G classroom 108, while inside his fate as a student leader was being determined.
Although he ran unopposed, Anderson’s peers in the Resident Student Association (RSA) debated for more than two hours on March 16 as to whether or not the middler biology major would be a suitable leader for the organization.
When the debate ended, the general council members of RSA did vote to elect Anderson president, effective April 23.
Anderson, the current vice president for programming for the group, said he understood why the council deliberated for so long and why he was asked by members of the organization if some of his “conduct” outside of RSA would continue to reflect poorly on the group.
“I can see where it might be a concern … I have a personal friendship and relationship with a lot of the general councilors,” Anderson said. “I think it goes back to just remembering that you are always under the watchful eye of people and remembering to set an example for the people around you.”
Anderson said he is a good choice for president of RSA because his personality is inviting to incoming freshmen who may be interested in the organization.
“One of the problems we are having is that general council is a really tight-knit group. A lot of people aren’t approachable. I feel like I am an extremely approachable person and I’m going to work on getting a lot of people into our group from all residence halls and all years,” Anderson said. “I feel that my personal skills are an extreme asset to bringing in new members that other people might not have.”
Other members of the organization, which represents the students living in Northeastern residence halls, said they were initially concerned with Anderson becoming president, but their feelings eventually changed.
“I know I had mentioned some concerns during the actual elections,” said Jason Russak, RSA’s former vice president for finance, “and it was poor judgment of myself in making some of the comments I made … but I felt more that it was just getting across the importance of the position and I think [Anderson] knows the importance.”
This year’s RSA elections were not the first when the group has had to choose between only one candidate or “no confidence.”
Last year, current RSA President Margaret Horton and Russak ran for president. The general council went through four rounds of voting before Horton was elected. The first three rounds produced no clear winner, even when former President Scott Minkin removed the option for council members to abstain.
Russak was eliminated from the race, because he received the least votes. Given the choice between Horton and “no confidence,” the general council elected Horton.
“Hopefully [Anderson] can take the things that I did and build off them and grow,” Horton said. “There are a lot of executive board members who are running again. Hopefully they can look at the mistakes and the troubles that we had this year and learn from the things we did and then do them differently.”
Despite the debate over his election as RSA president, Anderson said he believes he is the right person for the job and will be an active voice for Northeastern students.
“I think the general councilors really wanted to make sure they were electing a candidate that is going to be good for the position, good for RSA, good for our future,” he said. “I feel like I’m going to help out the student body as a whole just by knowing what the typical students want, what kind of programs they want to see on campus, what kind of new legislation they need and what plans for the residence halls they need. I feel like that is one of the best qualities that I have for this position.”
Also during the elections, Christina O’Sullivan, vice president for housing services, ran uncontested and was reelected to her position for the next session. Elections for other RSA executive board positions will be held tonight at 7 p.m. in West Village G classroom 108.
