Of the big issues shaping next week’s GUSA presidential campaign – like safety and meal plans – presidential candidate Twister Murchison (SFS ’08) says that most students think alike. So how can a candidate distinguish himself?

“It’s about who knows how best to implement those ideas,” Murchison says. “They’re not political issues. These are issues we can all agree on.”

Murchison, in his second year as an Assembly representative and running with Salik Ishtiaq (SFS ’07), another representative, has kept the focus of his campaign on his experience in the student association, which he says helped him establish working relationships within the Georgetown administration.

“I know first-hand a lot of the key administrators,” he said. “The good thing about being in GUSA is that you get to know the administrators and they have to work with you.”

But Murchison hasn’t kept his discussions with students limited to politics during the “dorm-storming” expeditions that have formed the basis of his campaign – the self-described “Grandpa” figure will take up any common ground that connects him to a particular student.

Some of his favorite conversation topics include the Dallas Cowboys, Indiana Jones – his leather jacket is an exact replica of Harrison Ford’s in “Raiders of the Lost Ark” – and everyone’s annual fear: spending Valentine’s Day without a date.

“There’s a select group of Valentine’s Day possibilities,” he told voters of his own plans during a dorm-storm. “I just need to get up the courage.”

In outlining his platform to students, Murchison identifies three major themes: safety, technology and accessibility.

That last theme has become a central one not only in the urchison-Ishtiaq campaign, but for all of the contenders in next week’s election, and it’s the first thing Murchison touches on when a meets a voter.

“The first question I always ask is, `Do you know what the Assembly is?'” he said in an interview. “And the overwhelming response is `No,’ or `Kind of, but not really.'”

Ishtiaq has also stressed the need for increased accessibility in his meetings with representatives from various student groups.

“I particularly like to meet with student groups because it is part of our effort to redress the lack of communication that previous GUSA administrations have had with the student body,” he said.

Still, as the candidate with the most GUSA experience, Murchison is most likely to be associated with the student association’s perceived lack of rapport within the student body. But he said that experience would help his ticket improve GUSA’s accessibility.

“We’ve been in GUSA, we know the problems that it faces, we know how to resolve those problems, and we have a huge desire to do so,” he said. “We’re going to need to make some internal changes, especially to our communications office.”

Murchison’s “Action Plan” includes proposals to enhance communication with students through press conferences, press releases, monthly town hall meetings, maintenance of the GUSA Web site and the development of “active office hours” in which members of GUSA will go out into the campus looking for input from the student body.

The Action Plan also addresses academic issues, such as increased credit for ROTC programs, more in-depth course descriptions and experimental online broadcasting of lectures in broadcasting lectures online. The platform also calls on University President John J. DeGioia to hold office hours, as well as for the repair of emergency call boxes and renovation of the Village C Alumni Lounge.

“We’ve got some tough competition,” Murchison said. “They’ve got some good ideas, very creative.”

Still, he says he and Ishtiaq have no doubts that they will be elected on Thursday.

“We’re confident in our victory,” he said.