USG tickets make the grade

Pop quiz.

Q: Who is the State College Borough Council president? (answer below)

The Daily Collegian asked all nine tickets running for Undergraduate Student Government president and vice president to answer nine questions about issues affecting students.

Candidates who had previous experience in USG did the best on the survey.

Hank Saur and Christina Robbins did not miss any of the nine questions. In fact, they even knew that both state representatives for this area are Republicans.

"It's very important that we know our legislators, so when we go down to Harrisburg to get more Penn State funding we know who should show strong support for us," Saur said.

Jaime Desmond and John Polk only missed one question and got part of a second question wrong.

"Although the survey caught us off guard, I think we answered to the best of our knowledge, and it showed that we are one of the most educated tickets on all of the issues," Desmond said.

Blaine Rummel and Kendra Ciesla did almost as well on the quiz as Desmond/Polk and Saur/Robbins. The candidates missed two questions and got part of a third question incorrect.

"You learn as you go," Ciesla said. "As you work on things, you slowly learn. That's how I learned. You study up on that stuff before you go to lobby."

Wesley Bowser and Mark Wilders only got one question correct. They knew it costs 85 cents to ride a Centre Area Transportation Authority (CATA) bus.

"It's important to be as informed as you can be, but we're all human. No one can know everything," Bowser said. "If you're not willing to learn, what are you willing to do?"

Jason Covener and Jeremy Nightingale got about half the questions right.

"It's not knowing the names and faces that's important. It's commitment to the issues that's important," Covener said. "I don't think people should look at the tickets that got a lot of questions wrong and say they're not fit to be USG president."

Thane Fake and Blythe Barron got a few of the 10 questions correct.

"We're basically running because we don't feel USG is doing an appropriate job of giving the students the information that is important," Fake said. "You probably would get the same kinds of results from most students you'd ask on this campus."

Michael Landsberg and Brent Barbe gave the most creative answers to the questions. When asked who was president of the State College Borough Council and who was vice president for student affairs, the candidates wrote: "We don't know which shows how he/she is failing to reach the general student body."

"I don't think you should eliminate candidates based on how well they did with this," Landsberg said. "It's more important how well you can do in office."

Darin Loccarini and Chris Pirrotta got about half the questions correct.

"Ask current USG members those same questions," Loccarini said. "They'll know them all and what have they done? Nothing. People don't even know who the people in USG are."

David Lubkemann and Eryn Kramer got a few of the 10 questions correct.

"The reason we don't know is no one has made us aware," Kramer said. "USG hasn't reached out to students and make them more informed about the issues."

"I'd like all of you out there to ask yourself if you know who the borough council president is," Lubkemann added.

A: Tom Daubert.