Dylan Lustig doesn’t think of himself as a politician.

The Student Association presidential candidate is a student first, above all else.

‘I am not different from anyone. I am here because this is my passion and this is what I love to do,’ Lustig said.

Alexandra Curtis and Ian Ludd, Lustig’s campaign managers, noticed Lustig’s passion. Curtis, a College of Arts and Sciences representative in SA, said Lustig is not in this race for his resume or for personal gains, but because he really cares about other people.

His desire to help others, his commitment to understanding students’ needs and his will to be inclusive of the campus has driven Lustig to be successful, said Ludd, a student representative for University Senate.

Lustig’s leadership is inspired by his great uncle, a decorated World War II veteran, he said. His great uncle values a ‘living in the moment’ philosophy, which Lustig portrays in his roles on campus by focusing on making policies to better the university for all student’s education, he said.

Even though Lustig has yet to make it halfway through his college career, the sophomore international relations and economics major, cites his experience in leadership roles on campus, including being on the executive board of the Dean’s Team and the vice-chair of the Student Engagement Committee in SA.

SA President Neal Casey nominated Lustig for the vice-chair position. Casey said he thinks Lustig is a good leader and would not have nominated him if he thought otherwise.

Lustig said the formation of the Dean’s Team in Arts and Sciences is a program he has worked on from its start with fellow SA and Dean’s Team Executive Board members Bonnie Kong and Amy Snider. He began working on the program because he was displeased with the lack of connection between college ambassadors, the peer mentoring program and the student peer advisers in Arts and Sciences, he said.

Although the Dean’s Team was a group effort, he said he has worked on his vision for the program since it began.

Lustig’s decision to run for SA president as a sophomore has been the source of much debate throughout the campaign. Lustig said age doesn’t concern him and that he feels ready for the position. He attributes this eagerness to the amount of experience he has obtained at Syracuse University and his wide range of connections with students, faculty and administrators.

‘If there was anything against a sophomore running for president it would be in the SA codes. It would be in the constitution,’ Lustig said.

Ludd said the issue of Lustig’s age isn’t as important as people are making it.

‘Experience is not in the amount of time you have been here, but rather the amount of things you have done here,’ Ludd said.

Lustig has a new vision for the role of the president, which he hopes to enact if elected, he said. Lustig said he feels there is so much more a president needs to do than what Casey is currently doing.

‘Neal has done a great job. He’s been results-based, and he has those results, but my vision of the president is the representative of the student,’ Lustig said.

Although Lustig applauds Casey’s off-campus involvement and wants to continue similar ventures in connecting the on- and off-the-Hill communities, he said he wants to have more transparency in his presidency.

One of Lustig’s goals is to work more closely with student organizations that apply for funding but do not receive it so that they can learn the codes and be a face organizations know they can go to with questions.

Seeing alterations in the functionality of SA is something Lustig hopes to enact if elected, he said. Lustig and his campaign managers believe SA is operating too much like a club instead of a student government.

The recent bill that attributed about $1 million to University Union is an example, Lustig said. He said he doubts any representative could have known that night that their constituency wanted the money to be spent in this way. He also said the representatives should have had more time to think about the bill.

A bill that Lustig helped to pass, the Home College Committees bill, will begin amending the constituency issue, he said.

Ludd said he supports Lustig because he truly believes Lustig has his heart in the right place.

Said Ludd: ‘It would be a safer bet to wait and play politics, but he is doing this because he was just upset with how he saw SA working. He is upset with people’s perceptions of SA, and he truly believed that this would be a way to try and make things better.’rebarill@syr.edu

Published on November 2, 2011 at 12:00 pm