Follow“YOU CAN’T SIT WITH US!”
Every time an ASUC candidate approaches me at the dining hall, this ubiquitous Mean Girls quote plays in my head. ASUC elections mirror the plot line of this classic and highly quotable film in more ways than one. The typical ASUC Senate candidate sets out with the goal of making a difference in his community, of giving himself up to the greater good to better the lives of his fellow students. But for some individuals, this quest escalates into a shameless vote hunt, dependent on the number of hands shaken and people befriended on Facebook. Nothing is more reminiscent of high school – or the overblown plot of Mean Girls – than student leadership campaigns based primarily on popularity and secondarily on policies. It’s hard enough knowing which table to sit at in a college social scene of Plastics, Cool Asians, Art Freaks, etc., and ASUC candidates who vie for votes via friendship only convolute the already complicated situation.
Countless times in the dining hall an ASUC candidate has spent a half hour at my table, discussing everything from majors to the co-op party scene to Spring Break plans. During each encounter, they truly act interested, as if I’m their new closest friend. However, the next day as I’m chowing down on the Blue Plate Special, they once again introduce themselves, with no recollection of the previous night’s intimate conversation – or my name. At every encounter, they engage me in deep conversation, telling me all about their hobbies, classes, and family, however they consistently fail to divulge that they are, in fact, running for an ASUC position. Such a lack of transparency in a campaign equates to buying votes with friendship, and is as popularity-driven as the race for homecoming queen.
Don’t get me wrong, I love meeting new people and anyone is welcome to break bread with me at Crossroads, but striking up a conversation and building a “friendship” on the grounds of a campaign is just as artificial and infuriating as instating a no-sweatpants dress code. Don’t pretend that we’re friends if you’re going to forget who I am the next day.
Cady Heron’s quest to ruin Regina George’s life started out innocent, too, but it soon grew into a soul-consuming scheme that blurred the lines between her true self and the person she pretended to be. ASUC Elections have a similar effect. Candidates run for positions with the best of intentions, but the line between friend and constituent gets muddled during election season. For some candidates – especially those with presidential aspirations – the campaign season never ends, and they spend every moment of their public college life in pursuit of these amorphous friend-constituents.
Rather than base elections off of Facebook banners and dining hall assaults – tactics as meaningless and in your face as a cheery Burn Book – ASUC candidates should seek out votes based off of their policies and records. I welcome any ASUC candidate to sit with me at dinner, as long as he or she makes it immediately obvious why they are there. Don’t turn elections into a Cady Heron-esque popularity contest, but sit down and tell me about your plans and policies outright, rather than playing a “friend or voter?” mind game.
Lack of transparency dictates the majority of this country’s political campaigns, in which often who you know is more efficacious than your actual ability to affect change. But our national political environment has no hope of changing if our local one doesn’t reform itself first; change comes from the ground up. Therefore, perhaps the greatest change candidates can hope to make in the ASUC is reforming their election tactics.
I truly admire ASUC candidates for their ambition and willingness to sacrifice their time in pursuit of making this campus a better place. ASUC candidates: You can sit with me – we can even share a cake made out of rainbows and smiles. Just let me know your intentions outright. Who knows, maybe I’ll even vote for you.
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