These next two days mark the end of this year’s campaign season for student government. While elections take place on Tuesday and Wednesday, we expect to be bombarded with Facebook events and statuses, flyers on campus and people stopping and encouraging us to vote for one candidate over the others.
But what we won’t see — and haven’t seen so far — are compelling reasons to support certain candidates over others.
What we have seen this year is nothing remarkable at all. Candidates generally took the same stances — ones that past candidates have held as well — when it comes to tuition, transparency and other issues.
While we want students to get motivated and turn out to vote in student elections, if candidates can’t tell us why they are the better choice, they are doing it wrong.
Both Tempe campus USG presidential candidates told The State Press they want to increase transparency, register students to vote, fight tuition increases and increase club funding. Both of the student government presidential candidates at the West campus want to increase student employment on campus.
The West, Downtown and Polytechnic student government candidates all said they wanted to work with legislators to stop the cost of tuition from going up.
Why is it that so many students take these same stances as candidates? Are these issues popular among students, or do we just fail to achieve them every academic year?
If either answer is a yes, then we need to rethink how student government is run. Either students just take the winning positions every year or they are setting the bar too high.
The most important part to take into consideration is what effect these new leaders will have on you as a student. Will your club get more funding if a certain ticket wins? Will more resources be brought to campus without raising the cost of attendance?
As each ticket vies for a student’s vote over the next two days, keep that in mind. If candidates approach you on campus, ask them directly. How will things be different if Ticket A were to win than if Ticket B were to win?
This is our way of presenting this year’s winners with a challenge — when governing next year, prove that you can get results before you get the votes.
Also, “transparency” is a buzzword, not a promise. If a candidate promises you transparency, ask them specifically what they will do. Year after year, including this current one, student leaders have used this term as a crutch simply because it sounds good.
All the tickets seem to have the general goal of increasing student involvement on campus. By accepting our challenge, they can do this. If student government were to become a functional part of each student’s experience here at ASU, they would feel more compelled to get involved.
That said, we wish all the contenders luck on Tuesday and Wednesday. More than anything, we hope elections at all four campuses conclude without the silly drama that seems to arise each year.
