She came out on top at the primaries. She endured three straight weeks of heavy campaigning. She pushed through the final election to become FUSA’s first female president.
The issues and the heat of the campaign, fueled by all of the candidates, drew the largest voter-turnout in several years-including a large female contingency (see Mirror Snapshot, “Class Breakdown”).
Through it all, Karen Donoghue, who officially takes her seat as FUSA president on April 25, says that she has learned the importance of friendship.
“Never underestimate the power of your friends,” she said, “because they will pull through at the least expected times.”
Apparently one can never have too many friends, because the transition process between winning the FUSA presidential election and taking the seat is filled with meeting new friends-those that will assist the new president in doing her job effectively.
“Basically it’s me just listening and meeting people, they’re not asking for feedback,” Donoghue said.
Current FUSA president Joe Piagentini meets with her regularly, giving her a crash-course in the history of FUSA, and the network of organizations and administrators that she will be working with in the coming year.
The six-week process starts out with introductions to Dean of Students Mark Reed, Vice President of Student Services William Schimpf, and of course, university President Fr. Aloysius P. Kelley S.J, among others.
In addition, Donoghue accompanies Piagentini to all of his various meetings throughout the day.
Piagentini also plans to evaluate the goals and accomplishments that his year of FUSA encountered while helping the new president to shape her own goals into workable solutions.
“This transition is already good because of the mistakes I’ve made through the process,” said Piagentini. “I can tell her what I wish I would have done. Then we both learn from it.”
Donoghue says that her involvement with FUSA and the building of the Student-Alumni Association (SAA) has assisted her in building working relationships with groups across campus. She has been a FUSA class officer since her freshman year.
“I met so many people through [being a class officer]. Within FUSA, you’re always communicating with people, it just opened a lot of lines of communication,” Donoghue said.
She also said that her involvement in the SAA, an organization she helped create her freshman year, has helped her throughout the campaign process.
This connection raised concern a volunteer from an opposing campaign, who wished to remain anonymous. This person claimed that Donoghue had violated the election code by using materials from the SAA during her campaign.
Part I, Section d. of the FUSA Spring Election Code states: “all printing and photocopying services must take place off campus.”
Donoghue denied that she printed any materials at the Alumni House.
“I did not violate the rules,” Donoghue said. “I borrowed signs from the Alumni House, and returned them after the campaign.”
Regardless, the new president is busily preparing for the tasks ahead, though she sounds as if she has recovered from the campaign three weeks ago. She has won a job that she said she has looked forward to since freshman year.
“Once you get into FUSA, you notice this one person who seems to be involved with everything,” Donoghue said with noticeable excitement.
“I’ve always been a leader, and I love being busy, trying to make people happy,” she added.
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