Election Coverage – Why are there so few candidates?

[dropcap]W[/dropcap]arwick University has 23,570 enrolled students. Why then are there only 36 people running for sabbatical positions?

The SU elections are unavoidable. The only way you could miss the poster boards, the paint and the stencils is if you locked yourself away in your room for a week. Everyone will have seen the candidates and their campaign posters. We are all immersed in the fever of elections; this is undeniable.

We are greatly encouraged to vote – something which I support wholeheartedly. We all should vote. Without voting, we can’t change the SU or its processes. We are also less at liberty to complain if things go wrong.

Warwick University has 23,570 enrolled students. Why then are there only 36 people running for sabbatical positions?

However how can the general university population be expected to invest themselves in voting when there are so few candidates? The pool has diversified with nearly a 50/50 split of male and female between the candidates, but I hesitate to say that this simply isn’t enough.

Without an even wider pool of candidates from which to choose, how can the sabbatical officers for the SU be a true representation of the university population? There should be more than one candidate for Ethnic Minorities, Disabled Students, LGBTUA+ officers.

How can the sabbatical officers for the SU be a true representation of the university population?

Obviously, these unopposed candidates don’t necessarily lack ability – they may indeed be the best qualified for their role. However we will never know if this is the case if more people aren’t encouraged to run. There are so many minority students at this university, myself included, but there are so few that feel empowered to run for these positions.

We need fresh blood in the SU. We have to start encouraging more new candidates to join the sabbatical race, otherwise the ideas will become stale and less will be achieved.

There are so many minority students at this university but there are so few that feel empowered to run for these positions

The candidates all have their strengths and I wish them the best in what is sure to be a horrifically stressful week. However we have to start not only encouraging people to vote but also encouraging people to run. Yes, we can vote to reopen nominations but this is just not good enough. The right people need to be supported to run in the first place.

Our sabbatical officers need to be a true representation of the entire university population. This is not only a means persuading people to vote, it means persuading new candidates to run in the first place.