All Kevin Neubauer, ’05, wants right now is sleep.
After a whirlwind couple of weeks full of exhaustive campaigning, he added a chapter to Fairfield University’s history book with his achievement of being the first rising junior to be elected into office as Fairfield University’s Students Association’s president.
“When it comes right down to it, it doesn’t matter your gender or age. It’s how hard you want to work and the effort put in,” Neubauer said. “Chris Zeitz ran a great campaign and could not have handled everything with more class.”
The 20-year-old sociology major from Providence, R.I. is completing his second term as class president of 2005. He dreamt of achieving the FUSA presidency since his freshman year, but it was not until last fall that he decided he would unquestionably make a run for it.
His inspiration for running came from various outlets, and the fact that his class had such a strong turnout at primaries gave him confidence.
Still, there were some doubts at first. “My friends were surprised at first because I am a year younger, but once it was definite, they were nothing but supportive – making signs, coming up with ideas, talking to people.”
Over the past two years, Neubauer has been involved at Fairfield as a lector, SKILL graduate, FYE facilitator, and a member of the orientation board for the class of 2007. He is working through the sociology department with the town of Fairfield for a global information service and also for a computing and network services provider. After graduation, he anticipates furthering his education at law school.
Working closely with Neubauer during the 2003-2004 school year will be the Vice President elect of Senate, Geoff Cook, ’05, and the Vice President elect of Programming, Jillian Grant, ’05. Neubauer and Grant ran on a ticket together for the election.
“It wasn’t even something that I had to think twice about,” said Grant. “We thought it would be enjoyable to go through this process with each other’s support.”
Neubauer agreed, saying, “We’ve always worked well together [on class council]. I am excited about working with her. We kept each other going through the campaign; I couldn’t have done it without her.”
Regarding Cook, Neubauer said that the two are good friends and commented that he has done a fantastic job with the Student Life Committee of Senate. Neubauer wants to take an active role in issues such as improving attendance at events, Sodexho food services, and public faculty evaluations. The Senate, which has committees for Sodexho and the evaluation, looks forward to working with him.
“Naturally, he will have considerable input to the tasks that Senate undertakes and his opinion will be regarded highly,” Cook said. “However, ultimately, the 40 elected senators hold much more influence and power than Kevin and I do.”
For the public faculty evaluations, Neubauer would work closely with a Senate committee.
“Kevin and I have spoken on numerous occasions about the prospect of publishing faculty evaluations,” said Senator Angela Schuster, ’05. “We are both passionate about the importance of making such valuable information accessible to the student body.”
Neubauer has a demanding road ahead of him as FUSA president, but he feels that he is capable of handling everything that will come his way.
He has a six-week training session with Karen Donoghue, as well as work with administrators on campus this summer, to look forward to.
“I want to convey my excitement for FUSA and the school to everyone. People with common goals is the way to achieve,” said Neubauer.
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