The SG race revolves around platforms and issues, and it is often hard for students to see the candidates as fellow students and humans like themselves.
The Reveille wanted to offer a softer side to Jay Buller and Allen Richey provided by their friends, professors and others who know them.
‘Batman’ Buller has ‘clever solutions’
Some people think of Jay Buller as a 12-year-old gymnastics champion, among other things. The rest of the student body may only know him as a candidate for Student Government president.
Buller, an economics junior and current Student Senate speaker, has been involved with SG and in other areas of campus life since he came to the University and has developed both friends and foes along the way.
Best friend and fraternity brother Kevin Istre, a pre-law junior, said if Buller were a superhero, he would be Batman.
He said Buller would be the Batman played by Adam West on the old television show, because he dresses goofy and always has clever solutions to tough problems.
While Buller might not go everywhere with a sidekick named Robin, Istre said Buller would make a great SG president because he is completely dedicated to everything he does.
“If you ever need something, he’ll help you out,” Istre said.
John Protevi, a French studies assistant professor who taught Buller in a freshman honors course, said Buller is an energetic hardworking student.
Protevi said Buller is a positive and organized person who turned all of his work in on time. If elected, he said Buller “would be fair to both conservative and progressive projects” that came in front of SG.
Marketing junior Sally Milligan said she has been a friend of Buller’s since their freshman year. She is also friends with Buller’s girlfriend and works with Buller in SG.
“Jay is excited about what he is doing and makes other people around him excited,” Milligan said. “Jay comes through. If I have needed a favor, he has made it happen.”
Milligan said these characteristics are what would make Buller a strong president.
English senior Lee Abbott, who worked with Buller in the Student Senate, said they rarely agreed on political issues, but they still liked each other.
Their strong working relationship stemmed from Buller’s ability to compromise and not be argumentative, Abbott said.
Although Buller will work with all sides on important issues and do an above average job as president, he will not bring radical change to SG, Abbott said.
Buller’s biggest flaws, according to Istre, are that he is too short, he sometimes does not wear socks with pants and often owes him money.
Protevi said Buller’s main weakness is that he is too conservative politically, but he does not know if that qualifies as a weakness in everyone’s eyes.
Strengths and weaknesses are often overpowered by humorous quirks. Milligan said Buller’s most obvious quirk is his “wealth of useless knowledge.”
Buller knows a wide array of insignificant facts including baseball statistics and historic details about New Orleans, Milligan said.
Although it is not really a quirk, Istre said a Buller was “pommel-horse champion of Louisiana when he was about 12.” He said Buller was involved in gymnastics as a child because he was home-schooled and filled his time with a variety of extra-curricular activities.
‘Quail Man’ Richey cares about minorities
Many students only see Allen Richey tabling in Free Speech Alley, handing out push-cards in the Quad and speaking in debates, but others admirably know him as Quail Man.
Richey, one of the two candidates in the runoff for Student Government president, has been involved with SG since his freshman year at the University. He is a political science junior and the current SG executive assistant.
In a race focused on issues and platforms, Richey’s friends and colleagues offered some insight into his personality.
Friend, ex-girlfriend and fellow Student Senate member Jaci Cole, a mass communication sophomore, said if Richey were a superhero, he would be Quail Man, the alternate personality of Doug Funny on the TV cartoon show “Doug.”
Although Richey does not wear a belt around his head and underwear outside of his pants, Cole said his friends call him Quail Man because he looks like the cartoon character.
Besides his superhero tendencies, Cole said Richey would make a strong SG president because he “sincerely cares that all the people at this University are equally represented.”
Cole said Richey wants minorities on his staff not to exploit the minority community, but instead to accurately represent them.
Louisiana politics professor Wayne Parent is Richey’s former professor and his thesis advisor.
Parent described Richey as a “perfect student” who is well-organized and open-minded.
Richey’s roommate, architecture junior Hunter Brown, said Richey has talked since his freshman year about how he wants to change the University.
Brown said Richey is an inspirational leader who takes action immediately.
Family, child and consumer sciences senior Jen Ali said she became friends with Richey through SG. She described him as a helpful and dedicated person whom she is privileged to know.
Mass communication senior and former SG President Patrick McCune said Richey is an amazing leader who has accomplished some difficult tasks within SG and elsewhere.
Cole described Richey as a procrastinator and said his “idealism sometimes gets the better of him.”
Brown said Richey’s major flaw lies in his yearning for change and frustration when he cannot change something or solve a problem.
Outside of his strengths and weaknesses, Richey’s friends described his list of quirks and offered several humorous stories to describe his character.
Brown said Richey once ate a worm at summer camp in high school to win $5.
He described Richey as a messy roommate when he is busy, but tidy “when he’s got his stuff together.”