Freshman elections a joke
Freshmen had a choice last Wednesday. Did we want to be more fantastic, or did we want to get on top? Perhaps we wanted to be more cultural, or have no affiliation at all? But judging from all the campaigning, there was one thing that we didn’t want from our Freshman Class Council: an issue.
The bottoms of my shoes are now a different color from all the chalk that was on the ground, but I have no idea why anybody was running or what they would do if elected. The only thing I know is that they ran, and that they may or may not have been fantastic.
There were approximately three campaign signs for every student on campus, but there was barely anything of substance on any of them. They only displayed the candidate’s name and what they were running for, sometimes with a picture or a catchy slogan.
The “Fantastic Four” advertised themselves so much that I’ve started to see “F4″ in all my textbooks. The only problem was that I didn’t know what would happen if the Fantastic Four won. Their signs only told me their names. I know that Caleb loves bears and Afros, but I don’t know who Caleb is or what he’ll do. The “multi-culti” ticket put a sign on every table at Bear’s Den telling prospective voters not to fear. Unless Freshman Class Council’s job is to protect the school from al-Qaeda, I had no reason to vote for any of them unless I knew them.
If I turned in a term paper arguing a point without giving any evidence, I would be lucky to get a D. Why are campaign signs held to a different standard? Is the only solution that all candidates must pass E Comp before running?
Another problem is that it isn’t well-known what role in Student Union these positions actually play. Is it something like the House of Representatives? What does the President do? What’s the difference between external and internal VP?
From Student Union’s Web site, I was able to find out that the point of Class Council is to foster class unity. If I weren’t writing this article, I’d never have known that, and still don’t know what each elected officer specifically does. It shouldn’t take special effort to find out. But for all I know, the treasurer has the authority to give everybody a million dollars, while the president is as powerful as the chancellor.
Looking at the Student Union Web site gave me another useful piece of information: the winners. As it turns out, the Class of 2008 wants to be much, much, much more fantastic, voting for each member of the Fantastic Four.
I remember in 2000, when there was that big presidential election, all the news channels had nonstop coverage and declared the winner so everyone would know. Granted, the University can’t do that. However, would it really be so hard to send out an e-mail saying who won, something similar to the one they sent out the morning of voting?
After CS40 elections, there were signs in Wohl advertising the winner. I was under the impression that CS40 was less important than SU. After all, CS40 is only for the residential colleges, while Freshman Class Council is for the entire class. In my residential college, there was even a CS40 position that no one was on the ballot for. But it was easier to find out who the winner was for that position than who became the President of the Class of 2008.
The Freshman Class Council elections were basically a joke. I didn’t even realize that I knew one of the candidates until seeing the ballot. Many people didn’t know what they were voting for, and still don’t know who won. So I’ll say something that Student Union should have already said: go to the Student Union Web site at su.wustl.edu; it will tell you a lot that we should have already known.
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