In 1979, elections ravaged campus, and tongues wagged about the exploits of Alex Baldwin, candidate for Student Association president. Baldwin had served as Program Board chair the previous year.

Baldwin lost the election that spring and transferred to New York University, where he took up acting. He later began to call himself Alec.

On Feb. 22, 1979, The GW Hatchet ran Baldwin’s candidate statement. The movie star-to-be had the following take on GW:

“GW suffers from one of the most pitiable public relations operations of any university in America. Much of what the student body has grown to dislike and disagree with is the lack of understanding. The University has never made a respectable effort at explaining what “Master Plan” means; what the University budget surplus is all about; where your Marvin Center fee goes; what the role of the Board of Trustees is at GW.

It would seem that the administration is deliberately striving to keep the student body in the dark as to what they are doing with our money and our education.”

On March 5, The Hatchet reported:By a margin of one vote, GW Student Association (GWUSA) Attorney General Pete Aloe edged Program Board Chair Alex Baldwin in voting last week for a spot against top vote-getter Mike Karakostas in the GWUSA presidential runoff. The runoff will be conducted Wednesday and Thursday.

Karakostas, vice president of the GW Hellenic Society, placed first in the primary election with 434 votes of the 2,059 cast. Aloe finished second with 397 votes, and Baldwin had 396 votes. Because no candidate received the required 40 percent plurality, Karakostas and Aloe will face each other in a runoff…

…A re-count of the presidential ballots, which was requested by Baldwin and witnessed by Baldwin, Aloe and Karakostas, occurred Friday. No votes were changed.-Paul D’Ambrosio

A separate story in the same issue reported:The GW Student Association (GWUSA) Election Committee fell apart Saturday…

…It has also become apparent Saturday that … a number of campaign violations may have occurred during the campaign severe enough to alter the one-point margin between presidential candidates Pete Aloe and Alex Baldwin that put Aloe in the runoff…

…the downfall of the committee began when Thomas Blood, a GW senior who was registered as a campaign worker for Baldwin but insists this was done without his permission, presented to the committee a list of campaign violations…

…Blood has also supplied The Hatchet with alleged violations against Baldwin, which he says were not as easy to compile because `other candidates thought I was too close to Baldwin, so they did not leak information to me.’ Blood added that he did not have enough time to present to the committee the violations he compiled against Baldwin through his own investigations…

Because Blood is a member of the Program Board, which Baldwin headed this year, his motivation for presenting the report was questioned. He insists, however, that the reasoning behind the presentation of his report was not to place Baldwin on the runoff ballot…-Jeff Levey and Maryann Haggerty

On March 8, 1979, National Law Center senator Dana Dembrow wrote a letter to The Hatchet. Dembrow, editor of the law school’s Advocate, responded to Blood’s claims:

Yes, it is possible for Alex Baldwin to not win a fair election. Alex Baldwin lost not because anyone cheated, but simply because his opponents were the choice of the voters…

…Not everyone in the University is enchanted with Mr. Baldwin’s administrative ability as a result of the job that the Program Board has done during the past two semesters. Some of us, in fact, were quite disappointed…

…No, Alex, the law students didn’t vote for you. They voted for Pete Aloe, who came to them to discover what their problems and concerns were…That’s right, it was fair and square.

It’s time to stop complaining and congratulate the victors, with the hope that they will do a better job than has been done in the past.

A few weeks later, accusations turned against the Program Board. The PB’s funds ran dry, and the Student Activities Office accused the Board of mismanaging money. Baldwin, meanwhile, announced his decision to transfer out of GW.

An April Fool’s Day Hatchet issue poked fun at the defunct PB chair:

Phallix Baldweenie, Bored Chairidiot, commented, “So what if they found anything? I’ll be at NYU before they can indict me!”