The first-year class elected Yoong Wen Chong, ’28, as its Executive Committee (EC) representative and Malachi Zarahn, ’28, as its justice for Student Judicial Council (SJC) on Sept. 26.
The two representatives ran very different campaigns. Chong ran against eight other candidates; Zarahn against one.
But when developing their campaigns, the representatives had similar ideas in mind. Chong said he separated himself from his competition through developing a “platform of personability—not personality, personability.”
Likewise, Zarahn believed his platform, dependent on his “ability to form connections across the university community,” gave him a leg-up over his competition.
Posters were central to the development of authentic campaigns in both EC and SJC elections, according to the candidates. Placed in Cafe 77, the Marketplace, Gaines and Graham-Lees, all candidates taped posters that showed their unique identity with varying levels of seriousness.
Chong chose to create designs that featured jokes and references to meme culture. The method worked for Chong in high school, he said. One poster, designed with the slogan “1800-VOTEFORYOONG,” has brought him success three years in a row.
“I did all the posters myself,” he said, and even showed off some designs that did not make the cut.
Chong said the humorous posters are for the sake of relating to the voting base and removing some of the disconnect between the EC and the student body. Chong said he does not have any huge changes planned for his term in the EC — instead, he said, it’s all “about bridging the gap.”
Chong has already worked to make the EC more accessible to first-years. All of his posters had a QR code to a voting guide that Chong wrote himself.
“It was quite a big thing that people did not know how to vote,” he said.
Additionally, Chong is hoping to create a kind of “Q&A system” on the EC’s website and in-person, with tables set up in Elrod Commons. He plans to help answer questions about club funding, the Honor System, and student governance.
Zarahn’s approach to posters was the opposite of Chong’s. Instead of making several different designs, Zarahn made a single, simple one. His posters were all about “increasing name and face recognizability,” he said. A QR code at the bottom went to his Linkedin profile — indicative of what Zarahn called his platform of “integrity, leadership, and experience.”
When asked why he chose to not incorporate humor in his posters, Zarahn said he did not want to be inauthentic to the campaign he was running: “My personality is very funny, but my motivations for why I want to be in SJC are very serious.”
No matter the methods they used to connect to the first-year class, both representatives attributed their victory to being social candidates.
“Leading up to the election, I would just go up to people and get to know them — no elections involved,” Chong said.
Likewise, Zarahn said his social skills helped him win the election.
“When it comes down to it […] I was able to connect with people” he said.
During his interview with the Ring-tum Phi in Cafe 77, ten people waved to him or came to his table to strike up a conversation.
“What separates Washington and Lee is not the academics […] it’s the people, it’s the faculty, and it’s the community,” said Zaharn when asked what he wanted to tell the university as a whole.
Zaharn said he is prepared to help uphold the University Community Standard in order to preserve the university community that he holds dear.
Meanwhile, Chong said he’s committed to hearing from the first-year class’s unique mix of values and ideas as he serves in the EC.
“There is always something to learn from someone — if you just listen,” Chong said.
