Because of her innovative ideas and her infectious enthusiasm for event planning, we endorse Katie Donley ’13 for Yale College Council events director. Donley’s experience organizing previous YCC events, combined with her ideas for creative, low-cost and just plain fun events, impressed us. Those qualities alone would have convinced us that she is the right choice for the job. But this is what sealed the endorsement for us: It took Donley barely five minutes to get us excited about next year’s events.

That’s not to say it wasn’t a difficult decision. Donley’s competitor in this race, James Campbell ’13 — who is currently serving as chairman of the Spring Fling committee — proved that he definitely has the knowledge and skills to run large-scale events. Campbell was able to rattle off details of Spring Fling finances and impressed us with his efforts to make the concert more environmentally friendly, but if he were to become events director, it’s likely we would get more of the same. Campbell’s ideas for new events consisted of hosting more concerts with Yale bands, bringing more musical acts to campus and extending Spring Fling later into the night. This does not extend the reach of the YCC.

Whereas Campbell’s experience consists solely of organizing Spring Fling, Donley has worked on a wide range of YCC events since her freshman year, from Spring Fling to Iron Chef Yale. She was in charge of planning Freshman Screw when she was on the Freshman Class Council last year, and she ran Last Comic Standing and the Foam Party. She displays an understanding of how to run an event from conception to cleanup.