Slating the slate system

Adam Cohen-Nowak | Class of 2016

Let me preface this by saying I was a candidate on “Empire Slate,” a slate that marginally lost Freshman Class Council elections. I felt especially compelled to respond to this editorial because of what I felt was a weak critique on an effective class council system and an unwarranted personal attack on its winning slate and freshman class president. I will offer my opinions on the matter, having myself experienced class council elections and the inner workings of the slate system, and in doing so, distance myself from any bitter feelings about election results.

First of all, to argue that the individual ballot system renders the slates obsolete is equivalent to saying brands like Kraft do not offer competitive advantage to products when customers are deliberating over which, for example, cheese to buy. The role of the slate system is to establish and sell a brand to students so that come election time, unfamiliar names on the ballot form can be associated with the slate names adjacent to them on the form. No matter how many people you think know of you, you never want to take the chance that your name may not look appealing on an online ballot form.

While the time-sensitive nature of forming slates may dissuade some potential candidates from running, it leaves it so the most ambitious and involved of students take on the challenge. They may not necessarily be the most creative. Although many contend that creativity ought to play a larger role in leadership, it is not always the most important of qualifications for representatives. Having good ideas is one thing; having good skills of communication to rally students behind an idea and gather input from the class body is another. Then again, nobody said politics was easy.

But it is outrageous to decry the “intimidating mission” of forming a slate and then lambast a freshman representative and his winning slate, even as a means of justifying an argument. Although I myself ran on the second-place slate and still believe that our goals are more realistic, would better cater to the student body and fulfill the role of a programming body, I only see allegations of inadequacy directed toward a recently elected freshman class president as cruel and unnecessary.

Not only is it unjust to criticize a leader who hasn’t led, a hitter who hasn’t been at bat, a swimmer who hasn’t raced, a fireman who hasn’t been called to put out a fire, a surgeon who hasn’t performed an operation and a musician who has yet to strum a note.

But it also does nothing to support the argument. In order to make the case that the slate system produces inadequate leaders, one must investigate the successes and failures of current upperclassmen that have served as Student Union representatives. A few hackneyed statements about how a class president wants to serve his student body do not an inadequate leader make.

Then there is the issue of this new voting system proposed by the editorialist. To assert that Residential College Council officials, having just run for candidacy, have better knowledge of how to assess candidates is an erroneous assumption. Who better to assess class council candidates than the student body the officials are to represent? Perhaps the votes of other Student Union representatives could act as they do in an Electoral College system. However, a recently elected RCC is not and will never be qualified to determine class council elections.

A Wash. U. class council election system free of slates is a system without one of the most critical lessons in politics—a candidate runs as an individual; however, that individual must always represent a constituency, group of interests and a political party, or in this case, a slate if he/she is to win. Without weeding out candidates that fail to successfully engage in politics, we would be represented by inept leaders with unrealistic ideas.

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