For the first time in several years, the office of commissioner of communications actually has qualified, enthusiastic candidates running for the position. This year, the candidates are One candidate Joe Bacich and Unity Candidate Catherine Algeri, and although both would excel at this position, Bacich has the edge.
Both candidates recognize that student media has been largely ignored at UCSD, and that work must be done to increase its funding and to increase circulation among students. Both have good ideas about how to achieve such goals. Each candidate has good people skills and is excited and enthusiastic about the position.
The main goal for both candidates is increased funding for student media. Bacich, however, has more concrete ideas concerning how to accomplish this. First, he wants to meet with each group and come up with a reasonable budget. He will then see how much of the proposed money he can get from the A.S. Council and work with the group to come up with the rest, which will mostly come from advertising. Advertising will come in the form of spot ads in the publications, as well as videos to be aired on SRTV. He has experience dealing with both.
In addition, he says he will start a marketing committee to aid the media organizations in getting advertisements from businesses in the community.
Bacich has extensive experience at KSDT and SRTV (he is currently the publicity director there) and is well versed in making video advertisements to air on SRTV. He also knows HTML and can aid student media organizations by helping them create Web sites.
Algeri is also well qualified, having been the editor of “”Temper,”” a UCSD student publication. Although she stresses increased funding, her ideas are a little less concrete than those of Bacich. She does have experience putting on events at a low cost, which would be beneficial in getting publications more known. Bacich, however, has a lot of experience with different kinds of media and with getting advertisements to increase funding.
While both candidates are qualified, we think that Bacich can do a better job.
