What if Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama lived in the same house?
For the residents of Somerset Hall, the idea isn’t so far-fetched – it pretty much sums up their daily lives.
Two pairs of competing Student Government Association candidates live on the second floor of the politically-active dorm, which houses about 130 freshmen and sophomores in CIVICUS, a living-learning program that encourages involvement on the campus and in the surrounding community.
Roommates Nehama Rogozen (Students Party) and Nina Anziska (HOUSE Party) are running against each other for North Hill Legislator, while former roommates Wanika Fisher (Students Party) and Joanna Calabrese (HOUSE Party) are competing for senior vice president.
Though the elections may be consuming the campus climate, residents in Somerset Hall said the competition hasn’t been too pervasive in their daily lives.
“Everyone in this building has been nice, considering it’s a huge battleground,” said Fisher’s roommate Kameahle Christopher, who lived with Fisher and Calabrese in a triple last year.
“It’s like a no-campaign zone,” added Anziska, a freshman government and politics major.
And students said they hadn’t noticed any inappropriate behavior stemming from the political divisions in the dorm.
“There’s probably somebody who removes fliers or something like that, but I haven’t seen anything,” Calabrese said.
But Fisher emphasized that there is still an election to be won.
While she said she respects Calabrese, “it’s still a competition and I’m still here to win,” Fisher, an African-American studies and government and politics major, said. “I just know that my qualities outshine her as a candidate.”
“I’m not that competitive a person,” responded Calabrese, a sophomore environmental science and policy major. “But different strokes for different folks.”
The students said their involvement with CIVICUS, which has a history of producing SGA candidates including current President Andrew Friedson, is a major reason so many Somerset residents run for office.
“It encourages everyone to get involved,” Calabrese said.
Many CIVICUS students are government and politics majors who were involved in the SGA in high school, Program Director Sue Briggs said. And situations like Anziska and Rogozen’s are not unheard of, Briggs added – roommates may have also run against each other in 2006, she said.
“That year, you’d walk by the windows, and half would have the name of one party and half would have the name of the other party,” she said.
And the situation can be awkward, Calabrese said.
“If you’re ever near someone you’re competing against, there’s tension,” she said.
Hurt feelings can even result during the campaigning process, Rogozen added.
“It’s hard to look at somebody and know that even though they’re your friend, they’re supporting the other team,” Rogozen, a sophomore government and politics major, said. “It’s like, I thought you would be supporting me.”
But the election – which ends tonight – is only a passing event, Christopher, a sophomore African-American studies and government and politics major, said. Christopher added she expects the dorm’s atmosphere to return to normal after the winners are announced, likening the situation to a football game between brother quarterbacks Eli and Peyton Manning.
“One’s going to win and one’s going to lose, but they’re still going to be friends,” she said.
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