I just read your article "It's a Popularity Contest: Name Recognition, SA support affects elections". I was very disappointed with the way it was handled. It is possible to make a critique of SA elections and elections in general.
I'm not going to say that popularity had nothing to do with the results but I think that there is substance behind many of the votes. I am an e-board member of a club on the international council and I sat through club endorsements. My council endorsed the candidates we thought were going to do the best job and were the most qualified. In regards to the delegates we endorsed the independent candidate Darwinson Valdez, David Noll from the Blue Party, and Juan Pereyra and Kayla Williams from the Voice Party. We encouraged our members to come out and vote. As students on e-board we try to get our members to come out to our events as well as SA events but we can only do so much.
Making diversity a priority is not politically crafty. At UB Latinos amount to about 3% of the undergraduate population with other racial and ethnic groups having small numbers as well. Having students who care about making the experience in UB and SUNY better for those students is very political like coming out is political and keeping your native language is political. Making it a campaign issue is not very smart seeing as this is a majority white campus.
If elections were held over the internet??? Elections use real booths like American political elections so why would we have them on the internet. Yes their would be no right-before-voting campaigning but there would still be campaigning. In real elections there is a distance you need to be from the polling place so feel free to encourage a greater distance if you are not satisfied.
At orientation SA offers a workshop every year which introduces students to SA and its services. SA often tables in the Union and is on FB as well but there are still people not involved. This is an issue I face as a VP and as a person who cares about American politics. Apathy is a problem.
Again the tone of the whole article was sour and it felt very biased. I understand that many people will have differing opinions and you can express them without sounding bitter and biased. Again I am all for critique because there are problems but there is a way to do it and that editorial was not it.
Carlos M.
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