| Here Title Place - Volume 2, Issue 3 - April May 1997
All tha Major Playas...I'm selling you out already. Here are interviews with the new SAC Executive. Do with them what you will.
This year’s acclaimed President is also last year’s acclaimed Social convenor - Morgan Shim. On the subject of his double-acclaimation, Morgan admits to the strangeness of the situation, but notes that this year he was looking for competition: MS: “Mr. Hedges gave me some names [of possible presidential candidates], and I was prepared for a campaign.” In the end, all the potential threats fizzled out, and Morgan was the only one who stuck around. Presto! Instant President-o. Morgan also amicably described this year’s SAC election using a collection of adjectives: “A lot of fun”, “Like nothing before”, “upbeat”, “well-fought by all”. MS: “The assembly was rowdy, but maybe that was better.” It seems that after feeling the sting of student apathy last year, Morgan is happy to get any kind of crowd involvement.
Mike Vasilakeris won out Gita Gulati to claim the Senior VP position on a platform based largely on increasing student input within the SAC and improving the way student concerns are dealt with. The mandatory inclusion of the yearbook as a part of student activity fees is one of the most frequently complained about issues within our school, so we asked Mike if he felt that students should have to buy a yearbook to receive an SAC card. MV: “I think that it’s not right, and that students should have the choice to pay for what they want to pay for, but the way it was before, the yearbook was going just further and further into debt, and it seemed like there was no other solution to that. While I don't agree with it, I don't see it as something the administration would be willing to change.” HTP: “What do think about the type of campaign your opponent, Gita Gulati, employed against you?” MV: “I guess she felt that she had to resort to the kind of backstreet politics that she did. There was no need for that. I thought that we could run a clean campaign and I tried to do that even afterwards.” HTP: “I heard that you smashed a Gita sign.” MV: “I felt that [Gita's] supporter was acting in a very rude and inappropriate way during my speech, so I took one of her signs, and as a symbol, I kind of smacked it against the back of a table. There was no smashing involved, and nothing got broken.” HTP: “If you had the opportunity, would you smack the sign again?” MV: “Well it was probably a stupid move, but I don't regret it.” HTP: “Do you think your actions were in effect, lowering you to Gita's level?” MV: “I wasn't really participating in any kind of dirty politics there, I was just expressing how I felt. I find it kind of suspicious that (Gita) and her people were working on signs at six in the evening, I got to school first thing and my signs were all down.” HTP: “Very suspicious.” MV: “Yeah. I don't think that it's necessary and its too bad Gita felt she had to resort to that kind of tactic.” HTP: “Do you think that Gita alienated voters by using her speech to attack you, rather than address any real issues?” MV: “I guess she thought that she couldn't win on the issues, but she made the wrong move by trying to attack me on the Pepsi factor, because that seemed to turn a lot of the vote against her. I guess if she was trying to get into the mudslinging style of politics, it serves her right.”
Youngest and most idealistic of all the new executive, Intermediate VP Shaloo Savla is the candidate whose mind was "exploding with unique ways of making our school events bigger and better." The main focus of our interview with Shaloo was to find out just how he plans to make all of these changes. HTP: “It seems like every year there are a lot of new executives like yourself, with a lot of bold new ideas, but nothing ever changes.” SS: “I think it is important to know exactly what the students want done so we can raise all these issues.” HTP: “If making a lot of changes is that simple, why are no changes ever made?” (interjection by Heidi Shukla, the newly appointed Communications Officer): “Because once people are elected, they finally realize how difficult it is to make changes.” SS: “no! no! no!” HTP: “So how will this year be any different from past years?” SS: “Because this is the time, this is the age. Maybe in the past there were some slackers, but now we have a strong committee of all enhanced people.” HTP: “So you think that enhanced people are better somehow than the average student?” SS: “no! no! no!” (at this point a group of enhanced students loitering in the background interrupt the interview to point out that enhanced people are better, and that most major organizations in our school are run by enhanced students) HTP: “So really, how will things be different, aside from the majority of the executive being enhanced students?” SS: “Because now we have the motivation.” HTP: “Most ideas proposed by the students would never be approved by the administration...” SS: “That's one of the problems, that is why I bring my point back to the fact that we have a strong committee, and a strong committee can persuade the administration to do what it wants by telling them it can happen.”
What does Ryan really plan to do now that his Pulp Fiction quotations have landed him in office? Strangely, Ryan was elected without having much of a platform. In his Woodchips submission he makes vague references to publishing the school’s accounts, and has long been an advocate against the locker-SACard-yearbook combo. He has also promised to trim useless spending on the part of the SAC. That all sounds good, but he’ll need a lot more than his dad’s suit to accomplish all that. At the forefront of student consciousness would be controversy over student fees. This little spat has been going on for a few years now, and many of this year’s SAC candidates such as Mike V., Gita Gulati, and Daniel Chen made allusions to it in order to win a few quick votes. Now safely elected, Kennedy is unsure of his ability to separate the SAC and yearbook. RK: “Check it out, like, you know, I’ll propose it.. I’ll say we’re losing because of the yearbook, and [Mr. Hedges] will say, ‘What do you want us to do?’. What I’ll have to do is talk to the people at the yearbook.. ” What’s that you’re giving the students, Ryan? Is it the shaft? Of course, Kennedy is quick to point out that he never made any direct promise during his campaign to change the policy on student fees: RK: “Naw, I didn’t mention anything about that. My whole speech was ‘I will not steal’, Wu-Tang Clan, and then Pulp Fiction.” HTP: “Well I guess your ass is safe then...” RK: “Yeah, my ass is alright.” Although it’s pretty early in the game, Ryan has some plans to cut spending, although he’ll have to clear everything with rest of the student council. He’s currently studying this year’s budget (which you’ll find elsewhere in this issue) to see if any changes might be made to save some money next year.
DM: “Well not, really. I actually have never even been to a school dance, but I don’t see that as a disadvantage...” HTP: “And how about the fact that your campaign was basically a big, empty spectacle which addressed no substantial issues?” DM: “I think addressing issues is a bad thing, after all, if I had an opinion about something, and someone else had a different opinion, they might not vote for me. So you see, it’s important to avoid issues wherever possible, especially in an election situation..” HTP: “It seems as though you were elected in large part due to the fact that you promised free candy to all students. How exactly do you plan on paying for all of it?” DM: “I think we could re-arrange the funding, and take money from something un- popular, say, the Woodchips, and use that money for free candy. I actually am planning a referendum which would allow the students to decide whether the $750 SAC dollars should be used to fund a year of Woodchips, or just some free candy. I think the students would choose the free candy.” HTP: “Don’t you think that student-press is important in that it allows the school a forum where ideas and opinions can be voiced? Don’t you think we’d be losing a valuable part of the school? And furthermore, wouldn’t you be effectively censoring the opinions of Woodlands students by destroying their newspaper?" DM: “It’s not really my place to decide what’s best for the school. I’m here to do what the students want. If the students vote for free candy, I’ll give it to them.” HTP: “Don’t you think you’ll meet up with some resistance from the administration on this?” DM: “Well, I don’t really think this is about the administration - this is about students. That’s obviously a factor, though. Free candy is good.”
Recycling Co-ordinator Andrew Chan declined our request for an interview.
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He’s the new Social Convenor, and openly admits to not knowing the first thing about
organizing a dance.