2008 Woodie Awards
USG elections are over, looking forward to seeing them next April
By: Kampire Bahana
Issue date: 4/3/08 Section: Forum
If you heard this week's announcement on John Waynick winning the USG presidential election and your first reaction was, "who?", then don't feel alone. It is an experience you share with thousands of other University students over the years who don't recognize the people who are supposed to represent them to the University administration.
If, like me, you had a vague idea of who the candidates were (at least the ones you intended on voting for) and then clicked through to vote and were met by a bewildering list of potential USG senators, none of whose names you had ever even heard of, well, then, at least you're in good company.
I wonder how many of the new senators achieved their positions through people like us, who clicked all the options, none of the options or went for the eeny-meeny-miney-mo option.
If you didn't bother voting at all because you didn't know the candidates, didn't care about the issues or had just heard all the promises about shuttles and textbooks before, then count yourself among the majority of the student body. Columns have been written before about the lack of visibility of USG. It obviously bears mentioning again now that another election has gone by.
After popping up like brightly-colored desert flowers, USG has burrowed back into the earth to hibernate until next year. Ask Hilary Clinton - hanging Sharpie-stained white sheets outside the Union the week before elections does not count as a campaign.
How am I supposed to get a feel about a candidate when I've never heard him speak?
When I've never been accosted by her in the Union, insisting that the most important thing I do that day is read the flier she's handing me?
When I've never even had the pleasure of seeing him or her publicly embarrassed in a debate?
How can I be sure that a candidate represents me and my concerns when we've never had a conversation? Nobody asked me how I'm doing or how my classes are going or what I want to see USG achieve this school year.
If, like me, you had a vague idea of who the candidates were (at least the ones you intended on voting for) and then clicked through to vote and were met by a bewildering list of potential USG senators, none of whose names you had ever even heard of, well, then, at least you're in good company.
I wonder how many of the new senators achieved their positions through people like us, who clicked all the options, none of the options or went for the eeny-meeny-miney-mo option.
If you didn't bother voting at all because you didn't know the candidates, didn't care about the issues or had just heard all the promises about shuttles and textbooks before, then count yourself among the majority of the student body. Columns have been written before about the lack of visibility of USG. It obviously bears mentioning again now that another election has gone by.
After popping up like brightly-colored desert flowers, USG has burrowed back into the earth to hibernate until next year. Ask Hilary Clinton - hanging Sharpie-stained white sheets outside the Union the week before elections does not count as a campaign.
How am I supposed to get a feel about a candidate when I've never heard him speak?
When I've never been accosted by her in the Union, insisting that the most important thing I do that day is read the flier she's handing me?
When I've never even had the pleasure of seeing him or her publicly embarrassed in a debate?
How can I be sure that a candidate represents me and my concerns when we've never had a conversation? Nobody asked me how I'm doing or how my classes are going or what I want to see USG achieve this school year.
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