Bite the Ballot: Election overhaul necessary for increasing candidate choice
Ryan Bromsgrove
Editor-in-Chief
Feb 26, 2013
There’s something wrong with the Students’ Union political culture of the last few years. The same faces have been running, with the same uninspiring platforms. The elections should be a time of revitalization and excitement, but instead we get the equivalent of McDonald’s coffee — it’s cheap and easy and you’ll drink it, but it doesn’t compare to what you could be getting.
The worst thing about the SU political culture is that whenever an outsider suggests that something is wrong, it gets absolutely and completely dismissed by the SU establishment. The arguments get derailed with excuses. “The executives work 80-hour weeks, give them a break.” “If you know everything, why aren’t you running?” “You just like to criticize everything we do.” I’ve been on the receiving end of all of those.
It leads to an insular culture. And that insular culture prevents outsiders from getting interested. It also prevents the adoption of new ideas and promotes a conservative mindset and powerful groupthink. Throughout the Lister affair of the last year, there has been an extreme lack of dissent on the part of SU representatives regarding the actions the SU has taken — and this is after several counts of The Gateway revealing the dissemination of incorrect or incomplete information.
Certain groups encourage their members to get involved. Lister feeds SU political positions, as do fraternities and sororities. This year’s executive, for example, are all members of frats, and most lived in Lister at some point. You can’t fault those groups for encouraging involvement. It’s good that there are some groups doing that encouragement. The problem is that the majority of people arriving at the executive level during the last couple of years have done so through the filter of a frat or Lister — and most have also arrived there through the filter of Students’ Council.
What’s largely not been represented lately at the executive level of the Students’ Union is everyone else. Those of us not in frats. Those of us who didn’t live in Lister. And we are the majority of potential voters, and the majority of the students they claim to represent. The Students’ Union has completely failed to foster interest among outsider students, and the last few crops of executives have, knowingly or not, exploited the imbalance of power while failing to fix it.
You also have to consider where these former executives from the last few years have gone after their terms. Many of them still work at the Students’ Union. By all accounts, these people do great jobs, provide expert service. Institutional memory is an important thing, but too much of it coupled with several years of samey-candidates, and an organization begins to resist change. Rather than nimbleness, adaptability and a willingness to try new things, we end up with a culture concerned more and more with its own continuance and less on what those outside that culture actually want. It’s subtle. Those on the inside may not notice it. But it’s there. It’s self-sustaining, and it the organization ceases to become self-correcting.
Instead of admitting its mistakes, it doubles down and ignores dissent.
Ten years ago, Mike Hudema was president, and whether you like him or not, that was an SU so far removed from what we have now it seems impossible that it could ever happen again.
Part of the self-correcting nature of an organization like the Students’ Union should be the elections. So let’s say you want to change things. You missed the deadline for executive positions, and you run for council. You win. But you have no idea what to do. All these bylaws to read through and understand. All these committees. And you have no idea how Robert’s Rules work.
Before you can even hope to effectively change something, you need to learn its language. So you start talking to returning councillors and the executive — who are largely returning councillors. You talk to the staff in 2-900. You talk to some former councillors.
And by the time you know enough about the system to be able to navigate it, well wouldn’t you know it, but you’re friends with too many people to want to stick your neck out and effect that change — and that’s assuming you even still want to change it anyway. Then it’s election time again, and if you stick around, you’re now the returning councillor welcoming the newcomers.
Page 1 of 5
Comments
Aboriginality: Struggles and Triumphs in Aboriginal Film
06/12/2013
More than 40 years later, does the acting industry still practice maltreatment towards Aboriginal people and misappropriate the culture? According to Aboriginal actress Roseanne Supernault, the acting industry may be on the brink of fundamental change.
The Best of Gateway Multimedia 2012-13
Edmonton Pride Parade 2013 [Gallery]
Edmonton Pride Parade 2013 [Gallery]
06/13/2013
Superman makes a triumphant comeback in Man of Steel
06/16/2013
Zack Snyder’s hasty reboot of the Superman series in Man of Steel is an exciting and emotionally spellbinding superhero film.
HOW DARE YOU BESMIRCH THE GOOD NAME OF MCDONALD’S COFFEE!! IT IS MCAMAZING!
Posted by Justin Bell on Feb 26, 2013
Interesting article, Ryan, but McDonald’s coffee is definitely above par
Posted by Alexander Delorme on Feb 26, 2013
The SU and the Gateway suffer from a tendency to view their own short experience at the U of A as indicative of long term trends. Both organizations need to look “long term”- beyond the standard 4 years most students stay at the University.
I was around in Mike Hudema’s day. The SU suffered from the same problems back then too – including that SU elections were predominantly male dominated, and that the same insiders generally ran the show. Individuals who have run a campaign before or who have sat on council before are often more familiar with the issues than people who come in fresh. It is by no means certain that experience guarantees a win. Outsiders simply need to do their homework and research before launching their bid. I’ve seen a good number of SU hacks get defeated by well prepared newcomers. I’ve also seen lazy newcomers get steamrolled because they had no clue what they were talking about.
The Gateway bears some responsibility for the lack of quality candidates in how they cover the SU and elections. I’ve seen years where the Gateway, an organization with a budget and outreach far outstripping any candidate, has turned its election coverage into a coronation of candidates popular among the editors. Articles about the SU and candidates can be (or were in my day) atrociously one sided and poorly researched. To quote the King of Pop: “if you want to make the world a better place/take a look at yourself and then make the change”.
The author also talks about the dominance of the fraternity system and Lister Hall. Both are recent occurrences. When I was active in the SU, a minority of council and executives were members of the Greek system. Lister’s ties to the SU only date back to the last few years to the presidencies of Blatz, Janz, and Morin. Neither of these organizations have had a historical stranglehold on executive positions.
If a Listerite or Greek has any advantage in running a campaign, it is this: An active member of either group will have an close network of involved friends. These are the people who run campaigns and tell their friends to go vote. SU elections, whether they occur in 2013, 2003, or 1903 have always been about who can meet the most people in a short period of time. In the end, people vote for who they know. A member of any involved group (Safewalk, Orientation, the Gateway, or the ESS for example) would have the same advantage. All it takes is a small, highly dedicated group of students determined to put the work in. That’s how Hudema did it, and it’s not a secret.
Mandatory outreach is a good idea – not just for executives, but for council too. Executives are relatively easy to get a hold of. Council is a much stronger body, yet getting elected to it is an absolute joke compared to the rigour executives are put through. Once elected, councillors generally just disappear until the next election. Going back to the responsibility that the Gateway bears, maybe this paper should put council candidates through the same ringer it subjects executives to.
The largest barrier to an executive position is the campaign. The most successful candidates are the ones who started planning the moment the previous election finished. Candidates are expected to be proficient in webpage and graphic design and video editing. Failure to design a sufficiently aesthetically pleasing poster results in ridicule in the Gateway’s “Poster Slam”. A campaign college early in the new year, teaching potential candidates the ins and outs of campaigning could lower the learning curve to potential candidates.
The author ends by advocating the elimination of some of the election rules. Let’s get some things straight first: Michelle Kelly was not disqualified because she overspent her budget. Michelle was disqualified for overspending on the last day of the campaign. CROs usually have a wide range of punishments available to them during the campaign. Michelle forced the CROs hand, and was disqualified because she broke a rule she was well aware of.
With respect to the pre-campaigning rules being removed entirely, what would the impact be? If I came from a wealthy family, could I plaster campus with posters for 6 months of the year, with my budget only kicking in during the official campaign period? Will candidates be forced through competition to litter campus with posters for a month? How will the Profs feel about having their classes interrupted by proto-hacks for the better part of the winter term? What will that do to candidates who already skip all classes during campaigning and suffer academically because of it?
The SU absolutely needs to improve outreach and engagement, although improving the quality of candidates isn’t as simple as Mr. Bromsgrove suggests. As EiC of the Gateway he is, however, one of the few people on campus who can do something about it, who can study the reasons students do and don’t decide to run.
Posted by Hack Emeritus on Feb 27, 2013
As a former outsider, who organized/planned/and mobilized a team to support a close friend who wanted to run for office, I agree (at least in part) with what hack emeritus said. I was a campaign manager (more than a decade ago ... eek ... almost two decades ago) for a candidate with no council experience, with no Lister or fraternity connections, and with limited previous on campus engagement. We were running against current councilors who were favored (at least by many hacks we talked to) to win. In the end, we trounced them by preparation (for example, reading all SU Bylaws and the University GFC Policy Manual ... which was not fun ... to craft a meaningful platform and ‘stump’ speech), by mobilizing anyone and everyone we knew to be involved, and by working harder than others (visiting more classes, talking to more people, etc). It is certainly possible!
But people need to understand why being an executive member is important. While giving back to the students and tackling very important issues on behalf of students is a major part (I hope) for every executive member, the leadership and management skills developed through such a role has an incredibly powerful impact on executive members’ future careers (including Mike Hudema). Many of the people from my day who were on the executive are now very successful in their chosen fields and have spread around the world thanks to the opportunities presented to them after graduating from the U of A. The long-term benefits of executive experience are very important, and putting the time in back-in-the-day was totally worth it!! Profiling some of them may help motivate new ‘outsiders’ from putting in the work!
Posted by Former Outsider and Successful Campaign Manager on Feb 27, 2013
Absolutely excellent points in this article, all five pages of it. Particularly the points about the ban on “pre-campaigning” and putting the amount of money candidate spent on the ballot instead. I remember being surprised seeing that massive list of election rules back when I tried out for a council seat.
Posted by P.L. on Feb 28, 2013
Winning a campaign as Campaign Manager will remain one of the greatest achievements of my university years solely because of the absurdities of running a UASU election. It’s like defeating The Joker.
Posted by I don't miss being a hack on Mar 01, 2013
Submit a comment
All comments must be approved by a moderator before they will be visible, and may take up to 48 hours to appear. Comments may be no longer than 5000 characters.
Commenting is not available in this channel entry.