Spring Break
RC Election Process: Anxiety, Speeches, Free Lunches Form Pillars of HBS Democracy
Bianca Tabourn (NB), Associate News Editor
Issue date: 10/3/05 Section: News
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Question: If you were asked to describe the RC Election Process in one word what would that word be?
Answer: Superficial, Rushed, Impersonal, Prescribed, Mysterious, Rigid, Stringent, Long, Democratic, Unbiased, Organized, Disorganized and Brief Impression Based (okay, so it took one RC three words to capture his feelings).
Yikes! These were just a few responses from the RC class about their take on the recent section elections. The overall impression of RCs was that elections were a tug of war between the very relevant need for the Student Association to fill leadership roles within the sections and the need for students to get to know their sectionmates a little better before voting them into key roles that enhance the section experience.
The election process itself was actually very methodical and in ways almost seemed to be pulled straight from the pages of a TOM case: Students were given descriptions of the various positions from old section members. Interested students were then told to sign their lives away on a sheet in the back of the class and solidify the deal with a position paper.
Next came the most difficult task of all: explain to 89 sectionmates, whom you just met three weeks ago, why they should vote you to lead, represent (and possibly humiliate!) their section for the duration of the year. The speeches were organized by ECs who successfully gamed the system last year and earned themselves a leadership position. For those students who weren't nervous about speeches going into the process, being hurriedly ushered out of the classroom only to wait in an Aldrich hallway so you couldn't hear speeches given by your running mates definitely put their composure to the test.
The good part about spending your lunch hour listening to speeches is that you were provided free lunch. (Although in one section, someone dropped the ball and lunch wasn't ordered. RCs frantically ran to Spangler to grab a bite only to get back to class where Presidential speeches had already started!)
Answer: Superficial, Rushed, Impersonal, Prescribed, Mysterious, Rigid, Stringent, Long, Democratic, Unbiased, Organized, Disorganized and Brief Impression Based (okay, so it took one RC three words to capture his feelings).
Yikes! These were just a few responses from the RC class about their take on the recent section elections. The overall impression of RCs was that elections were a tug of war between the very relevant need for the Student Association to fill leadership roles within the sections and the need for students to get to know their sectionmates a little better before voting them into key roles that enhance the section experience.
The election process itself was actually very methodical and in ways almost seemed to be pulled straight from the pages of a TOM case: Students were given descriptions of the various positions from old section members. Interested students were then told to sign their lives away on a sheet in the back of the class and solidify the deal with a position paper.
Next came the most difficult task of all: explain to 89 sectionmates, whom you just met three weeks ago, why they should vote you to lead, represent (and possibly humiliate!) their section for the duration of the year. The speeches were organized by ECs who successfully gamed the system last year and earned themselves a leadership position. For those students who weren't nervous about speeches going into the process, being hurriedly ushered out of the classroom only to wait in an Aldrich hallway so you couldn't hear speeches given by your running mates definitely put their composure to the test.
The good part about spending your lunch hour listening to speeches is that you were provided free lunch. (Although in one section, someone dropped the ball and lunch wasn't ordered. RCs frantically ran to Spangler to grab a bite only to get back to class where Presidential speeches had already started!)
