It is less than one week before this year's SA executive board and NYSSA elections, but chances are the majority of the student population is oblivious to the fact. Except for a few campaign posters, publicity surrounding the elections has been muted. The Elections and Credentials Committee is simply not communicating effectively to students that the fate of next year's government will be determined next Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.
A recent misunderstanding sheds light on the problem. The UB Students' Party, one of the two running in the campaign, wanted to hold town hall meetings, public question and answer forums open to all students. Last week, Barbara Edsall, chair of the SA Elections and Credentials committee, originally denied Students' presidential candidate Jason Litwak's request, citing time constraints. Litwak charged that Edsall's refusal was issued due to pressure from the Results Party, which is made up of SA e-board and NYSSA incumbents.
Not until Sunday night was it announced that this week's club council endorsement meetings would be open to the public. Traditionally, these meetings are held to allow all candidates to present themselves and their platforms to representatives from SA clubs exclusive of the student body. Litwak probably blew the situation out of proportion by accusing Edsall of toadying with the Results Party, but the fact that these meetings were barely publicized and open to all students only after the Students' party protest makes it obvious that the provision was a last-minute addition in response to Litwak's complaints. Informing students the meetings are open only by telling The Spectrum about them the night before they began was hardly adequate notice.
Skewing campaign publicity only to the clubs has problems of its own. Clubs that already receive funding or other benefits from the current SA administration are likely to favor the incumbents. Granted, certain Students' Party candidates are not doing themselves any favors with their poor presentations at these club council meetings, but SA and the elections committee are offering students adequate opportunity to evaluate the candidates.
These meetings should have been heavily advertised to the student population as whole. Most students are not involved in clubs and are not realistically offered the possibility to see the people who are ultimately in charge of how their mandatory student activity fee is spent. For proof, just check out the latest issue of Visions, the official SA magazine. The calendar lists these meetings only as candidate endorsements for club councils, not as discussions open to all students.
An event as important as a student government election demands massive publicity. Visions should have featured candidate profiles and party platforms of both parties. The fact that the Results Party is composed of current SA and NYSSA officers presents an even more pressing need for heavily advertising the elections, not reason to keep them quiet, as SA Vice President Josh Korman has reasoned. SA represents all the university's undergraduates, and it is their duty to provide effective and timely notice of impending events of this magnitude.
In other words, this means more than posting a bunch of campaign flyers on campus bulletin boards - and more. The campaign should have begun a month ago to give each party adequate time to make their cases for election to the students, and to give the students enough exposure to the candidates to evaluate them thoroughly. SA ought to have utilized its listserv, Visions, and more coverage on its Web site to blanket the campus with information about the elections. The elections committee, in turn, should have let the students know early last week - at the latest - via e-mails, flyers, and Web media that candidates would be available to answer questions at the club council meetings.
At best, this result is careless, and at worst, this is a corruption of the electoral process. By not adequately informing students of the meetings - or the election itself - the Students' Party is to all intents and purposes handed a loss. The elections committee should at least have allowed them the opportunity to lose - or win - in the voting booth.
But since the damage is mostly done, the following announcement will serve as the final message for the student body: club council endorsement meetings are open to all students this week. One will be held today at 5 p.m. in room 330 of the Student Union. Another will take place on Thursday at 4 p.m. in room 145E of the Student Union.
If you want a stake in how your fee is spent or the opportunity to help restore some integrity to the election, attend one of these meetings and vote next week.
