free
WEDNESDAY
april 15, 2015 high 59°, low 34°
t h e i n de p e n de n t s t u de n t n e w s pa p e r of s y r a c u s e , n e w yor k |
N • Waiting game
dailyorange.com
P • Fired up
The speaker for this May’s commencement ceremony has yet to be announced, making it the latest announcement date in the past few years by a few weeks. Page 3
SUNY–ESF students and close friends Jake Paganakis and Brian Miller are both passionate fire spinners, and often perform for free in the Syracuse area. Page 11
S • Statement win
Syracuse picked apart Hobart, scoring the first 15 goals of its 18-5 win over the Statesmen. The Orange picked up the Krauss-Simmons trophy in the process. Page 20
STUDENT ASSOCIATION ELECTIONS 2015 Editor’s note: With Student Association elections taking place this week, The Daily Orange is profiling each of the five candidates campaigning for president. See dailyorange.com for all five profiles.
CASTING CALL Three write-in candidates discuss inspiration behind running for SA president JESSE NICHOLS
logan reidsma asst. photo editor
By Brigid Kennedy staff writer
T
he possibility of unity and togetherness is what inspired Jesse Nichols to run as a write-in candidate for Student Association president. The idea came to him in a dream, he said — a vision of students coming together on the quad, meditating with one another, enjoying each other’s company.
Whether or not I win or lose, this entire campaign is becoming an opportunity for togetherness. Jesse Nichols sa presidential write-in candidate
“Whether or not I win or lose, this entire campaign is becoming an opportunity for togetherness,” Nichols said. Togetherness, as well as mindfulness — the ability to focus on the present moment — are two things Nichols takes very seriously as a practicing Buddhist and two things he would like the Syracuse University campus to work on. In fact, those characteristics are even what inspired the campaign’s short-but-sweet slogan: “Om for SU.” In the Buddhist religion, the “om” symbol stands for interconnectedness, he said. With the help of his running mate and Vice President of the Student Buddhist Association Moke Hein, Nichols further dissected the “om” symbol to create the four guiding principles of his campaign: equality, togetherness, compassion and dedication.
see nichols page 6
SAFET MESANOVIC
TATIANA CADET
Editor’s Note: After repeated requests, Safet Mesanovic declined to have The Daily Orange take an individual portrait of him.
By Rachel Sandler
By Thomas Beckley-Forest staff writer
S
afet Mesanovic is often asked where he’s from. “I hate that question,” said Mesanovic, a write-in candidate for Student Association president. At 20 years old, he has lived in four different countries and currently spends his summers with family in Dubai. Still, he grins as his friend and running mate, sophomore Gener Romeu Oliva, insists that Mesanovic, a junior economics major, loves telling the story of his international upbringing. In the pair’s platform, they have pledged to put the ideas of students over their own, and ensure the voices of all students be heard, even those of international students like themselves and other marginalized groups. To do this, they don’t have set campaign goals, rather they are using student ideas as the basis for their platform.
frankie prijatel photo editor
staff writer
A
s a junior transfer student from Georgia Perimeter College, a small community college near Atlanta, Georgia, Tatiana Cadet had a tough time adjusting to Syracuse University at first. “I thought that everything was going to be cookies and cream and fairy dust,” Cadet said. “But it wasn’t.” Cadet describes herself as extroverted, despite spending the majority of her first semester on campus alone. It was difficult to find a group that would accept her, she said.
I felt safe and cared for with THE General Body. It gave me a drive that I didn’t know I had. Tatiana Cadet sa presidential write-in candidate
I see them as role models, knowing they went through that and got to where they are today. Safet Mesanovic sa presidential write-in candidate on his parents
Mesanovic met his future running mate Oliva in Day Hall while they were stranded on campus along with other international students during 2013 Thanksgiving break. Mesanovic and his roommate were combing the empty dorms on the Mount, knocking on every door trying to recruit kids for a snowball fight when he first see mesanovic page 7
If feeling alone wasn’t enough, Cadet said, she also had to deal with being a transfer student and all of the baggage that comes with it. She had only been on campus for half a semester when she went to her first meeting for THE General Body after seeing the organization’s flier, a group Cadet credits with making her feel at home on campus. Now after one semester, Cadet is running for Student Association president. As a part of her campaign, she’s interacting with the student body and making herself visible. She is advocating for and talking to transfer and nontraditional students on campus, and she is a part of a group that she cares about.
see cadet page 8