SPECIAL

THE STUYVESANT COVERAGE

STANDARD SU ELECTIONS
TO THE COMMUNITIES OF STUYVESANT HIGH SCHOOL, TRIBECA, AND BATTERY PARK CITY June 3, 2007
“Your School, Your World—Your News” Visit us at: www.stuystandard.org VOL. 6, Special Issue

SU President/Vice President SU Senior Caucus

Endorsement Endorsement
All four candidates for the campaigns start to differ. Jamila In the race for Senior Caucus, site. Both plan to have homeroom
offices of Student Union President Ma and James Kim propose a new the two teams are relatively close; representatives, allowing messages
and Student Union Vice President SU handbook, including the new however, we do feel that Lee and to spread weekly. Kim and Luu plan
are well qualified for the job. Each Constitution, a description of the Gonzalez are the stronger ticket. to have the homerooms elect repre-
shows valuable leadership skills club-pub process, and a list of SU Both do have many similar ideas. sentative, which is an idea that
that will serve the Student Union members and contact information, We feel that Lee and Gonzalez will should be implemented. Currently,
and student body well. wasting trees on information that be more capable of carrying them junior homerooms had representa-
The biggest issue in this would be more appropriate on the out. t i v e s
election is the SU’s ability to com- website. Vanessa Charubhumi and Lee and picked for
municate Alexa Solimano Gonzalez them.
with the hope to create an have more The over-
student SU newsletter to experience all theme
body. distribute during than An- of Kim
T h i s homeroom, demon- drew Kim and Luu’s
y e a r , strating their com- and Vivian platform is
commu- mitment to trans- Luu. Luu helping to
nication parency and student has never make fall
w a s involvement. been part of go by
lacking: The SU is not a the Student quickly
n e w s static organization: Union (SU). and them
about policies change and Although having fun
Student revisions occur. An the team in spring.
Union expensive hand- feels this They plan
events book is bound to be will allow the bringing in of new to have college trips and college
c a m e outdated within ideas, it is hard without experience information sessions in the fall, as
second- several months of to come up with ideas that are able well as some fun events to relieve
hand, and the SU didn’t do enough its publication, is it really the best to be used. Furthermore, the Senior stress. Lee and Gonzalez also want
to spread their own messages. use of our money? If the hand- President and Vice President can to have more college trips. Lee has
Both sets of candidates book contains a static set of infor- get ideas from the senior class. experience as Junior President work-
have remedies to this problem. mation, why can’t it be placed In terms of communication, ing with the administration to ar-
Both involve maximizing the po- online? The bottom line: students both teams have similar ideas. range trips. Kim and Liu’s plan for
tential of stuysu.org, the SU’s need to make informed decisions. Both also plan to use the current college information sessions is to get
website. Each promises to post A monthly newsletter from the SU class website, www.stuy08.org. people from different organizations
minutes of meetings online, as well Lee promised to improve the regis-
as moving other resources to the tration process for the website if
web. SU PRESIDENT ENDORSEMENT elected. Kim and Luu did not spec- SENIOR ENDORSEMENT
Yet this is where the two continues on page 3 ify specific changes for the web- continues on page 2

SU Junior Caucus Endorsement

This year’s Junior Caucus election provides two very differ-
ent sets of candidates. Daniel Goldstern and William Oh lack SU
experience, but are filled with enthusiasm and a willingness to get Inside this issue:
the job done. Phillip Kim and Jenny Han bring about as much
experience as a pair of candidates can have.
Experience, as we learned this year, is not necessary for the Editorial 2
Junior Caucus position. Current Junior President Michelle Lee Charubhumi / Solimano 3
and Vice President Andrew Kim had very limited SU experience,
but there have been few problems with the Junior class within Kim / Ma 3
their control.
Both sets of candidates’ goals are to offer the best year for the Kim / Luu 3
Junior class. Goldstern and Oh plan to do this by involving the Lee / Gonzalez 4
Junior class in event planning. Kim and Han want to make sure
that the three big events of junior year go smoothly: Junior Prom, Kim / Han 4
Comedy Night, and the College Trips.
The Standard endorses Kim and Han. Kim has extensive ex-
Goldstern / Oh 4

JUNIOR ENDORSEMENT continues on page 2

2 THE STUYVESANT STANDARD June 3, 2007—VOL. 6, SPECIAL Editorial

THE STUYVESANT STANDARD

 
Founded 2001 EDITORIAL
 
THE STUDENT UNION
“Your School, Your World—Your News”

Executive Leadership Team ELECTIONS

DR. JOHN NIKOL FACULTY ADVISER
JENNIFER SCHLESINGER EDITOR IN CHIEF Another primary election, another disappointing vote total. This year,
ERIC MAYO MANAGING EDITOR out of an approximate 2400 eligible voters for Student Union President,
DIANE CHEN CO-CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER
ANGEL WONG CO-CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER
700 voted. That is approximately 29%, not including the two votes that
SANGHEE CHUNG LAYOUT EDITOR every voter was eligible for. Participation was no better in the caucus elec-
DANNY ZHU COPY CHIEF tions, as turnout averaged 40% in the two caucuses.
JIMMY ZHANG NEWS EDITOR The number represents a decline in votes from last year, which could
HESHAM SALEH, TIM CHANG ASSISTANT NEWS EDITORS be understandable. Under the watching eyes of a camera, many students
PRISCILLA MELO OPINIONS EDITOR felt the need to go to vote. Just because there is not a camera traveling with
EMMA RABINOVICH ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR the candidates does not make the election less important. The Student Un-
RICHARD MAI SPORTS EDITOR ion still represents the views of the students to the administration and the
JOSEPH KRUTOV SCIENCE EDITOR
OMAR AHMAD ASSISTANT SCIENCE EDITOR
outside community. By forfeiting the right to vote, you are denying your
HANFORD CHIU BUSINESS EDITOR right to protest any decision made in the future. Voting gives you the right
AMNA AHMAD LITERARY EDITOR to choose.
ROBERT STEVENSON ASSITANT LITERARY EDITOR Every candidate we interviewed, one question remained the same:
JESSE ZHANG WEBMASTER Why don’t people vote? The answers varied, but one thing held true
ELISSA TAM DIRECTOR OF PHOTOJOURNALISM throughout. Many people didn’t know the primaries were last Tuesday.
Every candidate should make it their responsibility to get out the vote.
Publication Even if they don’t vote for you personally, they are helping to make a dif-
ference in the Stuyvesant community.
THE STUYVESANT STANDARD is a nonprofit and nonpartisan publication pro-
Many people view student elections as a popularity contest or a
duced by the students of Stuyvesant High School.
choice of the same people year after year. That does not have to be the
THE STUYVESANT STANDARD distributes 2,000 free copies on a bi-weekly
case. Read through this special edition. Find out what the candidates stand
basis to the students and faculty of Stuyvesant High School and through-
for. Take two minutes and read through some of the many pamphlets
out the adjoining neighborhoods of TriBeCa and Battery Park City.
worked on tirelessly by these candidates. Changing stereotypes start from
THE STUYVESANT STANDARD welcomes letters from its readers.
within. Don’t let yourself feel your vote doesn’t count.
THE STUYVESANT STANDARD reserves the right to edit any published mate-
Especially with the President and Vice President of the Student Union
rial. The viewpoints of contributors do not necessarily reflect the views of
candidates, getting the student body involved will be a big issue in the com-
the Standard staff.
ing school year. The Student Union wants more participation. You, the
student body, will have to be willing to receive it. Complaining is not an
Copyright ©2006 THE STUYVESANT STANDARD
option if you do not exercise one of the most fundamental rights in our
country. These candidates are campaigning for your votes. Do them a favor
Contact Us and take the time to make an educated decision on who is best to run the
Please direct all correspondence to: Student Union.
THE STUYVESANT STANDARD
345 Chambers Street SENIOR ENDORSEMENT Furthermore, they have clear goals,
New York, NY 10282-1000 continued from page 1 such as a good graduation speaker
readers@stuystandard.org and the Stuy ’08 DVD.
Find us on the web at www.stuystandard.org to give talks. Kim said he had The Standard endorses Lee
some experience working with and Gonzalez because their experi-
Advertising Kaplan. However, it was never
clarified how they team was going
ence and creative ideas will pay off
for the senior class.
If you would like to advertise in THE STUYVESANT STANDARD, please e-mail to get free talks for Stuyvesant
advertising@stuystandard.org to request an advertisement form. We offer students. As for events, Kim and
a broad range of options including full color capability for your advertis- JUNIOR ENDORSEMENT
Luu had no truly new ideas. They
ing needs. want to have the more usual com- continued from page 1
edy nights and bowling. They did
Subscription talk about an open mike in the perience in planning many of the
events of the sophomore class,
park, which sounded slightly un-
feasible. Kim and Luu’s plans for including Soph-Frosh Semi Formal
spring were a little shaky. They and the first ever Soph-Frosh
THE STUYVESANT STANDARD Comedy Night. As mentioned ear-
SUBSCRIBE TODAY want seniors to have fun and some
great events. Unfortunately, nei- lier, it is possible to run Junior
1 YEAR — $15 ther has much experience planning Caucus without SU experience.
Delivery Information events. However, there are limits to how
Name:______________________________________________ A highlight of Kim and Luu’s inexperienced one can be. The
Address:____________________________________________ platform is the Clean Sweep Team. advisory councils work with the
___________________________________________________ It is an idea that can be utilized if President and Vice President to
Billing Information some more thought is put into how plan events related to that grade.
Please circle your choices below: it will be organized. Being on the committee, as Lee
Check Money Order Cash The theme of Lee and Gon- and Kim were, provides invaluable
Billing Address:______________________________________ zalez’s campaign is remembering insight that cannot be replaced.
___________________________________________________ senior year. Both have strong ex- For an experienced candidacy,
Please cut and mail to THE STUYVESANT STANDARD, 345 Chambers perience in arranging events. They the Standard endorses Phillip Kim
Street, New York, NY 10282-1000 OR send the above informa- also bring some innovative idea, and Jenny Han for President and
tion to subscription@stuystandard.org. such as the video memories disk. Vice President of the Junior Cau-
cus.
President / Senior Caucus June 3, 2007—VOL. 6, SPECIAL THE STUYVESANT STANDARD 3

SU PRESIDENT & VICE PRESIDENT

Vanessa Charubhumi
and Alexa Solimano
Vanessa Charubhumi and Al-
exa Solimano are looking to take
the SU to an entirely different level
if elected President and Vice Presi-
dent of the Student Union.
Charubhumi has plenty of ex-
perience with the Student Union.
She was president of her freshman
and sophomore class, in addition to
being the Vice President this year
with George Zisiadis. She credits
her time as Vice President this year
as a great learning experience and
allowed her to be involved with the
inner workings of the SU. Soli-
mano was the Executive Producer
of Soph-Frosh SING! this year as
well as a producer last year. Soli-
mano is also a member of the
Sophomore Advisory Council.
Their platform breaks down
into three parts: Improving rela-
tions between the SU and the gen-
eral student body, Opening the
Student Union to the entire Student
body, and Redefining SU tradi-
tions. To open the SU to a greater
majority of the students, they pro-
pose to re-design the outer SU.
Furniture would be purchased to
foster a better atmosphere, and a
station set up within the SU to pick
up applications for various fund-
ing.
To improve communication,
the candidates have two specific
ways to get the SU message out to
the student body. The first is a
calendar, similar to that on the Key
Club bulletin board, showing the
important events of that month.
Second, the candidates plan to
maximize the use of the Student
Union website, stuysu.org. Min-
utes from all meetings would be
posted, in addition to making all
applications accessible from the
internet. According to Charub-
humi, in the past, “The SU website
has never been maintained or up-
dated.”
The candidates also want to
continue certain SU traditions,
such as Supplyline and Elective
Day. They want to expand Elective
Day to two per term. Supplyline,
where students are able to ex-
change review books for new ones,
would become completely auto-
mated as to speed up the process.
The pair also wants to continue
newer traditions, such as the Stuy
T-Shirt contest.
James Kim and Jamila Ma
With an arsenal of Student
Union experience to support them,
candidates Jamila Ma and James
Kim are entering the battle for the
2008 SU presidency well prepared.
As a popular freshman and
sophomore class president, Kim
has a wide support base among the
sophomores. Ma, while not as
widely recognized as Kim, and
never having held an elected posi-
tion, has an impressive record that
will undoubtedly add to her grow-
ing reputation. As a member of
the Constitution Review Commit-
tee, she hopes to continue her
plans by creating a revised, com-
prehensive “SU Handbook,” which
will include a copy of the Constitu-
tion and other information to bring
the Student Union closer to the
student body. While Ma and Kim
concede that this handbook will be
a great expense, they believe that
the money spent on it will be well
spent if it is comprehensive.
The goal of bringing the
Stuyvesant community closer to
the SU is a central theme of the
Ma/Kim platform. Improved com-
munication is a key component of
their campaign – ambitious plans
for an improved and user-friendly
SU website and more student liber-
ties demonstrate the interest Ma
and Kim show for helping the stu-
dent body.
On the Zisiadis administra-
tion of ’06-‘07, Ma believes the
previous president “neatened up
the SU.” The two of them hope to
continue this trend by streamlining
club/pub protocol in their SU
handbook. In terms of administra-
tive capability, both candidates are
relying on their prior experience as
a selling point of their campaign.
Ma would even go so far as to say
that “an inexperienced
[president/vice-president] could be
dangerous,” indicating that this
position is extremely demanding
and that the student government
could be thrown into inefficacy
and weakness by novice.
Don’t Forget to Vote!
Wednesday, June 6th
By the bridge

SU PRESIDENT ENODRSEMENT
continued from page 1
gets the student body the information they need in a
clear and concise form and quickly.
Based on this, The Stuyvesant Standard en-
dorses Charubhumi and Solimano for President and
Vice President of the Student Union. We feel that
these two will work harder on improving communica-
tion between the Student Union and the Stuyvesant
community as well as fostering a more involved stu-
dent body. We hope that they will devote a majority
of their funding and attention to communicating with
and serving the student body as a whole.
SU SENIOR CAUCUS
Andrew Kim and Vivian Luu
With a sense of determination, juniors An- Specifically for the senior class, Kim and
drew Kim and Vivian Luu are looking to Luu want to make the first half of senior year go
“sweep” their way to Senior Caucus victory by quickly. “Fall term senior year is just an ex-
this Wednesday. tension of junior year” said Luu. To help sen-
Kim is currently the Vice-President for the iors, Kim and Luu propose a series of College
Junior class, as well as SING! Hip-Hop Direc- Crash Courses to help students learn what’s
tor and Building with Books Vice President of expected of them in concern to the college proc-
Fundraising. Luu has no previous SU experi-
ence, but according to the candidates, that KIM / LUU continues on page 4
should not be an issue. Being involved for the
SU in so long can limit your ideas, according to
Kim. They would be more likely to try some-
thing out of the box then sticking to the same
ideas that the SU currently has.
One of the ideas the group has is the “Clean
Sweep Committee”. One of the issues that the
Student Union deals with is a lack of respect
from the administration. They suggest that this
can be partly attributed to the poor state of the
hallways, particularly the third floor atrium and
the fifth floor by the lunchroom. The commit-
tee’s responsibility would be self-explanatory.
The goal is to improve the overall cleanliness
of the school while improving student relations
with the administration.
4 THE STUYVESANT STANDARD June 3, 2007—VOL. 6, SPECIAL Junior Caucus
KIM / LUU
Michelle Lee and Lauren Gonzalez continued from page 3

ess. Luu says “Most (current) jun-

With experience on both sides of the ticket, the
team of Juniors Michelle Lee and Lauren Gonzalez
want to “Make it last” for the seniors of 2007-08.
Lee and Gonzalez have the credentials for running
for Senior Caucus. Lee is the current Junior class
president, and has been involved in everything from
coordinating the Junior Prom to Administrating
stuy08.com, the junior class website. Gonzalez was the
Vice President for her freshmen and sophomore class,
and is currently on the Special Events Committee.
Along with Lee, they are co-coordinating the Junior
Prom.
The overarching theme of their candidacy is creat-
ing lasting memories for the senior class. Their first
idea is to create a Stuy Seniors ’08 DVD. Included on
the disc would be clips of SING!, student and teacher
interviews, pictures, and much more. The second way
they plan on creating these memories is through the
selection of the graduation speaker. They want to cre-
ate the same buzz around the speaker as last year,
when Conan O’Brien, host of NBC’s Late Night with
Conan O’Brien
This was a particularly difficult year in terms of col-
lege trips for the junior class. Ms. Archie was absent for
an extended period of time, forcing Lee to step up in
organizing the college trips. Though only one long trip
was organized, Lee and Gonzalez plan to hold the Senior
College Trip to the South that was canceled in April.
One of the duo’s greatest strength is idea planning.
Lee was behind the first Stuy-Junior Bowl-O-Rama,
which took place on Memorial Day at Leisure Time
Bowl. As mentioned earlier, they are the co-coordinators
of Junior Prom, in charge of the entire operation.
Both agree that one of the biggest things the SU
needs to work on is communication. Lee says “Not eve-
ryone looks at the bulletin boards, and the announce-
ments are fuzzy.” One idea suggested was a podcast.
Currently in the development stages, the idea is to use
the power of the podcast to deliver Student Union news
directly to the students. Furthermore, specifically for the
senior class, the Stuy08 website would be re-designed so
that whenever something is posted, an e-mail is immedi-
ately sent to all users.
iors are uninformed about how the
college process works.” The work-
shops would be designed to give
students the knowledge they need
in order to succeed in the college
process.
To communicate with the Sen-
ior Class, Kim and Luu propose to
continue the current website
stuy08.com. They also plan to use
a Facebook group to communicate
important messages to the class.
One of their other goals is to maxi-
mize the use of the Senior Advi-
sory Council. Each homeroom
would get one representative on
the council. They argue this will be
an effective way of getting infor-
mation to the Senior Class, as
homeroom is now administered
every Tuesday.

Phillip Kim and
Jenny Han
Both Phillip Kim and
Jenny Han agree that their biggest
asset in their candidacy for Junior
Caucus is their experience. Kim is
currently the Sophomore Caucus
Vice President, as well as the
Freshman Vice President last year.
He is joined by Jenny Han, who is
a current member of the Sopho-
more Advisory Council and was a
member of the Freshman Advisory
Council last year. Han said about
Kim “He really got things done.”
Kim said the reason he
wanted to run for Junior President
is that he enjoyed his experience as
vice president and wanted to “step
it up” by becoming president. Ac-
cording to Kim and Han, the most
important aspect of the Junior Cau-
cus revolves around three specific
events: Junior Comedy Night, Jun-
ior Prom, and the College Trips.
Kim already has experience plan-
ning Comedy Night, as he helped
run this year’s first Soph-Frosh
Comedy night, as well as planning
both Soph-Frosh semi-formals.
Their ideas are not limited
to those three events, however.
They would like to create a Junior
DVD filled with their memories
from the year. Also on their to-do
list is a Basketball Tournament in
conjunction with the sophomore
SU JUNIOR CAUCUS
Daniel Goldstern and
William Oh
The plan of Daniel Goldstern ence. Oh said, “We’ve been stu-
and William Oh is to have a great dents, too”
class. It was being planned for this Junior year, mainly by having Goldstern and Oh plan to rep-
year, but there was no available more events. Oh said, “We want to resent their class well. Goldstern
gym time. Kim says that with his have more of these events. It’s a said, “[We want] a balance be-
experience, he knows what events stressful school. We want to help.” tween what we have in mind and
are possible and what events Both members of the team what students have in mind.”
aren’t. That’s why they have cho- lack Student Union (SU) experi- Overall, they feel that only a poor
sen not to make any unrealistic ence. However, they have talked president and vice president would
promises. with members of the SU to get an overlook the desires of their class.
For communicating with idea of what they need to do. They They want to have a representative
the Junior class, a website specifi- also feel there is an advantage to from each homeroom and to create
cally for the class of 2009 would their inexperience. Goldstern said, a class website.
be created. It would allow the class “Experience is a beneficial thing at The team plans to hold com-
to give suggestions to Kim and times. Experience can be deceiv- edy nights, bowling nights, college
Han, as well as ways to contact ing. We might have an idea that trips, more dances, and other not
both of them. They also plan on [would] get under looked [by ex- specified in school activities. To
openly advertising for the Junior perience SU members].” They do this they will, “Plan ahead. Try
Advisory Council, making sure team also feel that being students to get trips planned as early as pos-
they get a diverse opinion of the gives them their greatest experi- sible,” said Goldstern.
entire Junior class.
They both agree that the
reason why few people voted in
the primaries is because they had
no idea Tuesday was the election.
Kim and Han both said that even
their closest friends forgot that
Tuesday was the primary. Another
reason they say that voter turnout
is low is that too many people are
indifferent. As Han says “Voting is
what selects your future leaders.”
Both Kim and Han are hoping to
get selected Wednesday.