FUSA Senate Vice Chair-elect Spencer Thibodeau said he could pinpoint the moment he became interested in politics.
‘A little over four years ago, I was studying for some exam and my mom called me into the living room. Wouldn’t you believe it, on TV was Barack Obama when he was still just a state senator,’ Thibodeau said.’ ‘I remember the excitement I felt after seeing him speak. I took the Kerry/Edwards pin, which my parents had given me to wear, and I switched it with an Obama ’08 pin. That was my junior year of high school.
‘I kept telling people around me ‘He’s going to run for president” Thibodeau said.’ ‘Many didn’t believe me partially because they did not know who he was.’
No one would guess how much experience Thibodeau, a newly 21-year-old student at Fairfield, has had in politics.’ This summer alone, he worked for two different congressional campaigns and even worked for Obama’s campaign during the primary season last summer.
‘The first rally that I went to was when I was working in New Hampshire and Barack Obama was on stage.’ Someone asked me if I wanted to go on stage I didn’t know I was going to be sitting right behind him.’
A natural politician
When he isn’t mere feet away from the new president, Thibodeau, a political science major, turns to the Fairfield University Student Association (FUSA) to get his political fill.’
Because he spends countless hours in the FUSA office, he is known to many students on campus as the smiley guy always wearing a red Fairfield sweatshirt hanging around the lower level of the BCC.
Elizabeth Grimm, the 2009 class council vice president and a friend of Thibodeau’s, said, ‘I think [Spencer’s] greatest accomplishment is gaining face and name recognition,’ she said. ‘A majority of the student body does not know what FUSA does or the time and work that goes into putting on successful student programming, let alone their class officers and executive board members. Spencer has been able to promote himself as an active leader within FUSA and he has helped shed light on the biggest, yet most ambiguous club on campus.’
Although he may seem to be all smiles, Thibodeau hasn’t always been so lucky in politics at Fairfield.’
Thibodeau started his FUSA career as a senator, saying that he listened to people who told him what positions to take to move up in the ranks. His sophomore year, he was made director of publicity for programming board, and midyear, he decided to run for FUSA President.
Thibodeau was hopeful when he won the primary by about 100 votes, but ultimately was defeated by Jeff Seiser, the current FUSA president.
Grimm said that even after the loss, Spencer kept his head up.’ ‘ ‘
‘Spencer always keeps a great ‘if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em’ attitude Spencer is truly a great sport and never a sore loser,’ said Grimm.
Striking Legend-ary chords on campus
Thibodeau is now the director of concerts on the programming board, which was his third choice, first being FUSA president and second being the secretary of communications.’
Even though he wasn’t chosen for these positions, Thibodeau said he still thought that being in charge of picking concerts was interesting.’ However, he has faced some problems in this role, considering the low attendance of the fall concert.
‘When the agent called saying John Legend was prepared to perform at Fairfield for much less than his usual rate, which was about $130,000, we said ‘hey, five-time Grammy winner, willing to play after a $75,000 pay cut. Why not?’ … we thought it was a no-brainer,’ he said. He explained that he was confident with the choice because on a survey, students said they wanted a ‘classy’ act, and Legend is ‘as classy as they come.’
The thought was that if Legend sold out, they could have a big concert for spring semester as well, but such was not the case.
FUSA received a lot of flak for the choice of artist, and sales were not as high as expected.’
‘We took a risk I am proud of with our selection of John Legend,’ he said.’
Thibodeau defended his stance in a letter to the editor in the The Mirror after a writer asked why Sacred Heart is able to get artists like 50 Cent and Akon.’ In the letter, co-signed by Meghan Doyle, executive director of programming and Thomas Vitlo, director of concerts, cited that it is ‘unfair’ to compare the schools.
‘We believe that John Legend exemplified the aforementioned concerns of the student body and is anything but ‘the artist who quietly serenades us as we wait for our coffee at Jazzman’s,’ the letter said.’
Room for improvement
However, Thibodeau said he felt the organization may not be as strong in certain ways than it was when he entered as a freshman.
‘Even now, I’m concerned about the whole organization,’ he said. ‘I don’t think it communicates to the students as well as it should.’ I think we need an overall message.’
Under 2006-2008 FUSA President Hutch Williams, he said FUSA was very different, ‘He communicated what he was doing well.’ His main thing was school spirit and everyone knew that.
‘I think that Jeff has done a lot of good things, but if the student body doesn’t know what your doing, then what is really getting done? Progress is only half of the equation.’
Seiser said he agrees with Thibodeau’ that improvements can be made and that as next year’s FUSA president, he plans to make internal communication within the organization and marketing of FUSA’s accomplishments to the student body top priorities.
‘This year, we’ve made a lot of progress, but I think we focus too much on the progress and not enough about publicizing our progress to students,’ Seiser said.
In his senior year, he hopes to pull FUSA in a new direction, one that is closer to the student body.
Thibodeau’s advice for students who have concerns: Speak up.
‘If you talk, most likely somebody’s going to listen.’
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Setting his sights on Senate
Outside of FUSA, Thibodeau has made the initiative to meet new people and open his horizons by going out and having fun.
‘I try to be outgoing and friendly. I want to met as many people I can, because I think that’s what college is for,’ he said.
Senior year for Thibodeau will be a time where he can show his political skills, as he was appointed vice chair of the FUSA Senate.
In his future position, Thibodeau wants to ‘inject some new energy in [the FUSA] Senate,’ because he believes that when people are excited, things will more likely get done.
‘If Senators went to other students in their residence halls or whatever once every month to tell them what FUSA was doing, that would improve things so much,’ he said.
He plans to expand the position of vice chair from just keeping attendance and assisting the chair of Senate to help Senate take more official positions on issues and make FUSA more of a team.’
Referring back to a FUSA Senate meeting, he said that, when asked, most senators could not name 10 people on the programming board and vice-versa.
‘No one is talking to each other,’ he said. ‘How can the students know who we are, if we, as an organization do not know who we are?’
Seiser expressed confidence in Thibodeau as future vice chair, saying that his ‘strong motivation’ will hopefully produce results.
‘I expect him to do a great job,’ he said.
Thinking back to his beginnings, Spencer said that even if all his aspirations at Fairfield do not materialize, he will stick with his political ambitions.
‘If everything else fails, I still have that Barack Obama pin I made,’ he said.
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