The sidewalks are coated in a garish layer of brightly colored chalk. Neon quarter sheets are handed out near the Rock by doe-eyed freshmen. You can’t walk one block without stepping on a promise for a better shuttle system, more alcohol on campus and better cell phone reception.
It’s time for ASG elections, and this time, I’m in the middle of it all.
My roommate Claire Lew is running for president of ASG, and after watching all the hard work that goes into a campaign, I have elected to make like Switzerland and discuss just how hard it is for both candidates to try and engage interest for an office considered by students to be ineffectual and unimportant.
I’ll admit that in my career at this school I have never really paid much attention to the issues at hand (or in the case of flyering, at foot.) Whenever I’ve gone to NU Link to exercise democracy, I’ve chosen the candidate with the coolest sounding name.
This year, it has been a different story.
With a front-row seat to the campaign, I’ve become privy to the incredible amount of dedication it takes to run for ASG. Door-to-doors, chalking, flyering, creating Facebook and web-pages, preparing for debates and attempting to get the support of publications on campus are just a few of the trials the candidates go through in competing for election. In addition, campaign regulations are incredibly frustrating. If a candidate commits more than three violations, they are removed from the ballot. What constitutes a violation? You’d be surprised. Flyers can be posted only on very specific bulletin boards, and should one sheet be seen on a tree or a rock, it could be considered an unfair advantage. Such rules are put in place to prevent any inequitable gains, but as the aforementioned freshmen are running around taping up fliers, they may not know the specific rules and bring violations down on the candidate they believe in.
I am asking the student body to consider the election of an ASG president as something of importance in our lives, if not because we care about the issues, then out of respect for all the hard work that candidates have put in to try and make our school better. Perhaps we should start focusing less on whether all their campaign promises come to fruition and instead realize the person elected to office is intended to represent us as a student body. I believe it’s our responsibility to take 15 minutes from studying and eating Easy Mac to do a little research and chose the person we think would do the best job, not just the person Reggie from down the hall told us to vote for. After all the hard work they have done in the past week, at the very least we owe the candidates our thoughtful consideration of their platforms, experience and dedication to our school.
Weinberg junior Alana Buckbee can be reached at [email protected].