Hillary Dang (SFS ’12) and Katie Balloch (COL ’12) walked between the treadmills and stationary bicycles in Yates Field House to distribute bottles of Gatorade, while Matt Wagner (SFS ’11) and Emmanuel Hampton (COL ’11) knocked on every door of all the freshman dorms on campus, and then some. Calen Angert (MSB ’11) and Jason Kluger (MSB ’11) set up a table outside of Midnight Mug, and Arman Ismail (COL ’11) and Tucker Stafford (COL ’12) caught up with diners in O’Donovan Hall.

As the eight students vying in today’s election to head the Georgetown University Student Association Executive make clear, winning votes is not just about posting fliers or creating YouTube videos, but rather making unique efforts to reach out to the student body that they hope to represent next year.

The general consensus of all the candidates this year is that face time with voters is their first priority.

“Calen and I try to talk to as many people as possible – that’s our focus. We look for the opportunity to talk to fellow students about our ideas for next year and all that we can do for them,” Kluger said in an e-mail.

Ismail agreed: “For us, the best strategy has always been simply talking to and hearing the needs and ideas of students,” he said.

According to Wagner, the most difficult problem that he and Hampton have encountered in their campaigning is trying to lobby those who are relatively indifferent to the primary campaign issues.

“The difficult part is apathy, but the best part is seeing people care about the things that are going to affect the whole campus. We have seen that a lot,” he said.

While all of the candidates have utilized technology such as personalized Web sites, Facebook groups and YouTube videos to broadcast their stances on the issues, Dang asserts that it is only a starting point.

“Face-to-face time is a lot more beneficial because you’re actually interacting with who you’re trying to reach,” Dang said.

“We were never concerned with things like the number of people joining a Facebook group, but rather we focused on the ideas we heard and shared and the amount of support we gained through personal interactions,” Ismail and Stafford said in an e-mail.

Dang and Balloch said that they have targeted underclassmen especially in the past week.

“While it’s important to reach out to juniors and seniors, we both think it is important to reach out to freshmen. If they make the change and become more aware, they can get more involved [in the future],” Balloch said.

Wagner and Hampton said that they are targeting the groups on campus that have been underrepresented in the past, including the arts community and minority activism groups.

Through interactions with students, each team has had the opportunity to convey what they believe to be the most important issues for GUSA to address and why they are fit for the task.

Angert points to his experience as the sitting GUSA president as testimony.

“I think we are in the best position to expand on the ideas already in place,” Angert said. “Our lead time is nothing. On Wednesday, I can meet with everybody and get started. There is no hitch in the system. I think that is very critical.”

The other pairs acknowledge the challenges that come with running against the incumbent. Wagner, however, sees the circumstances as an opportunity.

“While it is difficult to run against people with the name recognition among upperclassmen and a record of some good things to run on, I think it’s a two-sided issue,” Wagner said. “We don’t need to say that they won’t do well on certain issues – we can say that they haven’t done well on certain issues.”

Wagner said that he and Hampton do a better job of representing the needs and wants of the entire student body.

Dang and Balloch believe being the only all-female ticket in the race enables them to relate to a wider audience.

“I think as `Jane Hoyas’ instead of the typical `Joe Hoya’ presidential candidates we hope to actually make the change from the old GUSA to the new one. We keep saying in our campaign that we want to bring a fresh approach to GUSA, and we think as the only female candidates and first all-female ticket we actually achieve that,” Dang and Balloch said in an e-mail. “There are only nine girls in GUSA currently out of the 42 [senate and Executive] seats. That ratio doesn’t seem quite right at a school where 55 [percent] of the student body is female.”

Ismail and Stafford are also approaching the campaign from the perspective of an unconventional pair – Ismail is a GUSA senator and Stafford is a two-sport varsity athlete – but they said that they are able to balance each other out and, coming from diverse interests, are able to better serve the community.

By combining individual strengths, the other candidates have also been able to create a unique synergy within their teams.

“We’re similar in the sense that we have similar priorities, but we’re different in the sense that we bring different strengths to GUSA,” Wagner said of the dynamic between himself and Hampton. “He has an unending diligence to what he does, whereas I am more like an ideas person. He is too, but he is more of a `Let’s put this into action’ kind of person. We work incredibly well together.”

Angert referred to a similar team-oriented relationship with Kluger.

“I can definitely depend on him to give any project due diligence, and I would expect he would say the same about me. After having worked this long together, we’ve come to appreciate each other’s approach and have capitalized on our different strengths,” Angert said.

The vigorous campaigning and, in the case of Angert and Kluger, the past work for the GUSA Executive, take a toll on the candidates.

“It gets busy, it gets stressful. But if you truly enjoy it, it’s not bad. And we truly enjoy it – walking into a room of 20 people, our executive, and saying `Alright, what can we do to make this place better?'” Angert said.

Kluger credited the positive feedback and assistance they have received from their supporters in their campaign efforts.

“This year, it’s still hectic, but we are extremely fortunate in that we have a large number of tremendous people who are dedicated to improving the lives of the student body. As a result, we have been able to reach out to a far greater number of people than last year,” Kluger said.

For Ismail and Stafford, the biggest challenge has been “balancing the time that an endeavor of this nature requires with other aspects of our lives such as schoolwork,” they said.

While the work is difficult and time-consuming at times, Wagner refers to his motivation to serve the campus community.

“When people ask why something is important to us, it’s because it is important to us, it’s not because it’s something we collected opinions [on] and decided it’s the most important thing to run on. We’re doing things because we believe in them, and we want that to come across when we campaign,” Wagner said.

While the candidates diverge in their views of the issues, they can all agree that they are looking for students to go online and vote today.

“We hope students will take note and involve themselves. It’s not hard to get involved. Regardless of the election, we hope we made a difference in some way,” Dang said.