Column: Weigh student candidates like any other

The Iowa City Council soon could include a University of Iowa student in its ranks. Two of the four people running for two open at-large seats are full-time college men.

Jeff Shipley, 21, and Dan Tallon, 20, both will be on next month's ballot along with financial adviser Susan Mims, 52, and Terry Dickens, 54, co-owner of Herteen & Stocker Jewelers. I joined other Gazette Editorial Board members in talking with the four this week as we prepare for our endorsement.

Mims and Dickens have lived in Iowa City longer than Shipley and Tallon have even been alive, but the two young candidates held their own in our discussions. They had their share of boilerplate (will I ever meet a candidate who doesn't support public safety?), but threw some curveballs, too.

Some of their ideas came off as kind of squirrely, like Shipley's proposal to privatize the parking department.

And I'm not convinced that police are “going into parties and harassing younger people,” as he asserts.

But I was intrigued by Tallon's suggestion that a police reserve might help beef up patrols, and the question, posed by both, of whether we still need to add fluoride to the city's water supply.

The young men have done their homework and have some leadership experience. Shipley is the UI Student Government's liaison to the city council. Tallon's served more than three years in the National Guard. They're serious candidates.

It will be easy for students to vote in this election, thanks to eight on-campus satellite voting stations. They should. Council's decisions affect the UI's nearly 21,000 undergraduates just as much as they do any resident. And when students do vote, it can make a difference. Exhibit A: Barack Obama. Exhibit B: a failed proposal to ban 19- and 20-year-olds from bars.

But will they show up in the absence of a glamorous national campaign, or when their right to party isn't on the line? And would they, or we, be well-represented by Shipley or Tallon?

Voting for a student just because he's a student doesn't make any more sense than, say, voting for a president you could imagine sharing a beer with. As Tallon said, he's not running as just any student. He's running because he wants to serve.

There's no denying, a younger councilor would bring a little fresh air to city government. But that's not enough in itself.

Iowa City's two student candidates deserve the same consideration - and the same scrutiny - as anyone else.

Jennifer Hemmingsen's column appears on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Contact the writer at (319) 339-3154 or jennifer.hemmingsen@gazcomm.com