This Tuesday and Wednesday, students can vote in Congress of the South 40 and Student Union elections, as well as consider proposals for block funding on WebSTAC. While it is important in a democratic society to have elected leaders, democracy also means having choices and being able to cast a meaningful vote.
Sadly, as the ballots will appear on Tuesday, most elections are uncontested, even those for executive positions in SU. Normally Student Life makes endorsements of candidates and tries to help students to make educated voting choices. This year, there are very few choices. The elections are essentially a useless formality. Accordingly, students should treat them as such.
Instead of simply confirming current leadership and perpetuating the trend of low turnout and meaningless elections, students should vote for write-in candidates. SU need not continue to be an insiders-only club. Vote for candidates outside of SU who will bring new perspectives. Vote for friends, people you respect as leaders in other arenas, students who are hard workers and see the role of SU or CS40 in the same way that you do.
Campus elections do not have to be a one-way process; plenty of people relate to other students in ways that would make them perfect candidates for SU offices.
While members of the current SU leadership have tried their own recruitment efforts, with lax accountability or pressure to improve their leadership, they can’t help but fall out of touch with students. In truth, competition is counter-intuitive to current office holders; why should they increase competition and put their own re-election at risk?
With that in mind, we scoured the Facebook for the person most likely to be accountable to students-namely, the person with the most friends. That research turned up Vinay Kamparath. Students should consider writing him in for SU president if they have no better suggestion.
To mix up SU, to show that the elections truly are a joke, vote for your favorite write-in this year. Your vote can send a powerful message. It can tell the current student governors that they do not have a mandate, and that democracy is not at work. If there is one lesson from the NCAA Final Four frenzy in St. Louis, it is that competition can be a great thing. If only campus elections would have the same madness.