PJ Alampi has not always been so connected. In fact, high school in his New Jersey hometown proved to be a challenge for the now Student Association presidential candidate whose reading disability made relating to his classmates a struggle.

Then Alampi found student government, his voice and that he could count on himself to change his life. He also found that he could make at least a small change in yours.

Though Alampi is running on the campaign slogan “Connecting Cuse,” his greatest strength is his ability to connect one-on-one with most individuals he encounters, all while staying true to his self-described “quirky” style.

This is the direction Alampi, a junior film major in the College of Visual and Performing Arts, and his campaign team have pushed to promote in the weeks leading up to the election to take place on MySlice from Nov. 12-15.

While focusing on earning each individual vote, and therefore listening to the wants and needs of many students here, Alampi has yet to lose sight of the importance of his own beliefs and opinions. He has struck a balance between taking in others’ ideas and promoting his own; between listening and speaking.

This is a valuable trait in a leader, especially one who wishes to lead an accessible student government where constituents are easily able to hold each member accountable.

Alampi stands out from the other candidates — Allie Curtis, Kyle Coleman and Iggy Nava — when comparing experience and documented credibility. Alampi, who has been in SA since the beginning of his freshman year, beats out all three of the other candidates in time spent in leadership positions within the organization. He is the chair of the Student Life Committee and held the role of Board of Elections and Membership chair last session. Curtis comes in second with one year as the association’s vice president.

As Student Life chair, Alampi redefined the committee. It now has individual boards and initiatives delegated to specific representatives charged with completing the tasks assigned. While serving as Board of Elections chair, Alampi diligently reported updated election results throughout the several-day span of the 2011 SA election, as well as made consistent recommendations concerning assembly candidates.

These experiences have made Alampi well versed in how to run factions of the organization and his own teams of student leaders.

How individuals view themselves as leaders can be telling to what kind of administration they will direct. Neal Casey saw himself as a businessman, and his top-down approach to governing and focus on the quantity of representatives reflected that. Dylan Lustig is the self-proclaimed friendly nonpolitician, which has been exemplified in his relaxed style of running weekly meetings and focus on campus-wide community service instead of internal policy.

When I asked Alampi to define himself as a leader he was unable to do so. And yet, so was I. Though at first puzzling, the inability to define Alampi is truly what makes him so appealing and the most ideal candidate for the job.

Unlike Coleman, who is again somewhat business-strategy oriented like Casey, and Curtis, who is more focused on a personable persona than policy like Lustig, Alampi is a new kind of leader who is seemingly able to straddle both ends of the campus-leader spectrum.

Alampi also covers much of Nava’s best features in that, like Nava, Alampi also reaches out to students directly and is working on a main goal of making SU a more inclusive environment for all students.

He is original and refreshingly unusual. But most importantly, the man in the bow tie is the best choice you can make for SA president.

Rachael Barillari is a junior political science and Middle Eastern studies major. Her column appears weekly. She can be reached at rebarill@syr.edu.

 

Published on November 8, 2012 at 1:00 am