Frank Fraioli ’08, who withdrew from the FUSA presidential race last Sunday because of a knee injury, would have made a fine president had he been elected.
Unlike many past candidates, he had a platform that featured specific issues – such as the creation of a FUSA Executive Board position devoted to diversity issues – rather than broad concepts such as school unity, which look good on campaign flyers but lack substance.
As one of the few students on campus who are politically active – Fraioli has been an active member in both the College Republicans and College Democrats clubs, having changed his political affiliation last year – he has a knack for what it takes for executives to implement effective policies.
But unfortunately for the student body, Fraioli didn’t give students a chance to vote for him when he withdrew from the race.
Fraioli told The Mirror last week that had he remained in the race, he would have risked “permanent damage” to his knee – a concept that is baffling to say the least.
If anything, the sight of Fraioli hobbling door-to-door on crutches speaking to voters would have increased his chances of winning.
It is surprising and deeply disappointing that the one person at Fairfield who was willing to challenge FUSA President Hutch Williams ’08 didn’t have the drive to put any real effort into his campaign.
Last year, The Mirror endorsed Williams for president over Ryan Neubauer ’07 because of the energy that we thought he would bring to the job.
His first term lacked any substantial policy implementations and he deserves some responsibility for the lack of influence FUSA has had over the administration’s decision to end Spam Jam in its current format.
But whether or not students approve of Williams’ job performance, the one undeniable reality about the race that ended before it started is that Williams was the only candidate in the race who really cared about the campaign.
It is ironic that at the time Fraioili e-mailed The Mirror to announce he was dropping out of the race, Williams had just left his office with a box full of campaign flyers to distribute throughout campus.
He hasn’t been a perfect president, but whether it has been at sparsely attended sporting events or countless meetings for various organizations, Williams has always been happy and eager to show up.
Surely, that counts for something.
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