Student Soapbox: Student Politics is no laughing matter

**Student politics is a serious business, says the candidate. Student politics is a serious business, says the Student Union. Student politics is a waste of time, says the average student. Candidates, as far as I can see it, have two methods of campaigning. **

The first is to try and seek out those students who take SU politics as seriously as they do (if those students aren’t running for something themselves, that is). The second is to lower themselves to the standards of the average student. The latter seems equally, if not more, successful than the former. Allow me to give an example through the campaign for first year councillor.

Most halls have Facebook groups, for example, the ‘Westwood 2012-2013’ group. Intended to organize inter-hall events and meeting people before you get to Uni, during the student elections they take on a rather different function, becoming the main base of campaigning for many people, trying to rally support from those who live around them.

{{quote Whether these tactics translate to student politics remains to be seen – the campaign of one candidate seemed to be based upon insulting the credentials of the others }}

More than one candidate approached the group in a serious manner. ‘Hello fellow Westwoodians!’ one such post began. They would then continue with a reasoned argument that you should vote for them, or, more commonly, why you shouldn’t vote for the others. This tactic is obviously inspired by what I will call ‘real- world politics’. If Cameron isn’t putting Milliband down, you can guarantee he’ll get a telling off from his PR team. Whether these tactics translate to student politics remains to be seen— one candidate’s entire campaign seemed to be based upon insulting the credentials of the others, and he ended up with a lowly five votes.

The reactions to some of these ‘vote for me’ posts encouraged other candidates to rally troops in a rather different manner. They focused their campaign on the greatness of themselves, rather than their policies, recycling famous quotes and Chuck Norris jokes, throwing the candidate’s name in where they could. “Cogito Ergo [Candidate]” one post read. Another was “I heard [he] killed a guy… with a trident.” One of the candidates who had such supporting comments was actually elected with the most votes of any student councillor — and I can only guess that this was as much due to his humorous campaigning style as his policies.

However, these tactics are not deployed solely for first year positions. Last year’s SU presidential elections saw ‘joke candidate’ Aaron Bowater come a respectable second, despite policies including ‘move Warwick Uni to Warwickshire’. Whether this is a problem with a solution or just a student phenomenon that candidates should be aware of, I’m not qualified to say.