Take a deep breath during your next walk through the Union-do you smell that? It’s the smell of potential candidates resigning their positions with the Associated Students of the University of Utah to become eligible to run for office in our next student government elections.
It is the time of year when the people who will be driving us absolutely insane during elections at the U begin taking the steps necessary to run for office. Although I would love to suggest the people on campus who are least likely to annoy me during my brisk walks from class to class run for office (an impossibility, I’m sure), I have an even better idea.
Why doesn’t someone who’s unlike the stereotypical ASUU candidate give it a shot and campaign a different way that does not irritate the majority of students and create a crazy amount of wasted paper?
Contrary to popular belief at the U, you don’t have to be a Sigma Chi to be student body president. You don’t even have to be in a fraternity. And to go even further (I know, it’s hard to stretch our thinking this far), you don’t have to be a dude. Believe it or not, you don’t even have to be a member of Greek Row. That’s right, it is possible that the next president of ASUU could be a woman who is not in a sorority.
While I am more than content with the work being done by ASUU with the help of President Spencer Pearson and Vice President Basim Motiwala this year, I think it is time for a different kind of student body president and a different kind of race to the office.
Every year, when elections are near, we are flooded with an obscene amount of material to get our attention-papers handed to us between every single class from each different party, pictures from floor to ceiling in every building (especially OSH) and signs at every turn on our campus. While I am sure every last piece of propaganda is made from recycled paper and makes it into a recycling bin when elections are over (read: dripping with sarcasm), what happens to those huge signs with the candidates’ faces on them? I mean, I’m sure the winners take them home to their parents’ house where they will reside atop a mantel until their term in office is complete. But what do the losers do? Trash them?
So much waste created for a relatively small, short university election. Why can’t the ASUU elections adopt a new, improved, paperless policy?
I propose we have all the information that is usually on the papers being handed out and the mug shot posters put on a website. Put all of the links on the ASUU website and then have each candidate put a link on their Facebook and MySpace profiles (tell me one time that you’ve walked into a room full of computers and college students and those sites aren’t on the majority of screens). The sites will be seen, information will spread and you can have as many pictures of your face as you would like without wasting any paper.
Continue to produce and wear T-shirts around campus, as those are incredibly reusable (I see them all the time at the field house, winning and losing shirts both) and give each party excellent exposure.
Certainly continue to pass out free food. We all know the way to a starving student’s heart and vote is right through their stomachs. Best yet, if you’re passing out food more often (with the budget you saved by not using all that wasteful paper), you won’t have to stop students at every bend in the sidewalk-they will be stopping by for their morning breakfast or afternoon snack anyway, having read on your website that you would be passing out bagels and coffee near the library.
Less waste, more breakfast!
So come on, yet-to-be-named non-Greek female candidate! Step up to the challenge and create a campaign that we can all be proud of!
