After the meeting, the executive board talked privately about the candidates for a short period, and then decided to split their endorsement between two tickets, choosing Plants for president and Burton for vice president.

"We found in the end that the two progressive campaigns--Plants and Wikler, and Driskell and Burton--both showed a great deal of support for the issues we discussed," wrote the BGLTSA executive board in an e-mail message to its members. "In the end, however, we decided that a split endorsement would present the candidates who best represented the needs of the BGLT community and its supporters."

While candidates often run together for council elections, the offices of president and vice president are officially elected separately.

The campaigns of Fentrice Driskell '01 and Burton lead the field, with endorsements from the Black Students Association (BSA), the Black Men's Forum, the liberal magazine Perspective, Radcliffe Union of Students (RUS), Students for Choice, the Environmental Action Committee (EAC), and one-half of the BGLTSA's split endorsement.

"These groups lay the foundation for a wide-ranging coalition of students that will from the basis of the Driskell-Burton campaign," Burton said. "We are forming a strong progressive coalition."

"We know John and that he has a strong interest in women's issues," said Kathryn B. Clancy '00, co-president of RUS. "We're very progressive, so Driskell and Burton were the natural choice."

Both candidates spoke last week to the BSA, urging members to support the campaign.