Elections Coverage – “I understand if you’ve stopped caring”

[dropcap]I[/dropcap] can completely understand if you have stopped caring. The irony in being a green university and then plastering cardboard and tape around for Elections Week is something that I have heard laughed at on the U1 more than once this week.

The fact that all of the campaigns are eating up your Facebook Newsfeed like that ravenous-looking orange hamster that, for the life of me I can’t understand why, is a suitable mascot for SU democracy. Everyone keeps telling you why this is important and all you want to do is get past the brightly coloured candidates in the shadows of Library Bridge so you slump into your broken-socketed seat in 3X without a flyer being shoved in your mouth.

I get it. I am not going to patronise you by saying you should vote, or that you should even care. I think to be honest, a lot of people are apathetic because they feel like they live without the Union at all.

I am not going to patronise you by saying you should vote, or that you should even care.

Even though it indirectly permeates a lot of what happens on campus, even if to a certain extent it is a token, anything to do with housing, food on campus, the environment, Freshers’ Weeks, the library, your course, your welfare and health, a lot of people don’t know the effect of that huge building that swamps Rootes Grocery Store. It has paid staff and sabbatical officers, and a lot of that is your money. For those of you that think this has nothing to do with you, I think you are missing an opportunity. You are effectively not cashing in on your investment.

Whether you like it or not, these elections are happening and for the foreseeable future they are going to carry on. You are going to have to put up with these individuals turning up in your lectures and trying to get their ticket to that £19,007 because supposedly they can’t get a grad job. We’ve heard all of the jokes and some of them are funny, but having been on two campaign teams in the last few years, I can tell you first hand that it is not a joke to some of the candidates running.

It has paid staff and sabbatical officers, and a lot of that is your money.

I say that, but then that is also untrue. Every year, the most frustrating part of the campaign season is watching candidates who are just not right for the job calling in all of their favours to make this into a popularity contest. You are literally paying these people money to represent you, and most people will cast their vote without even glancing at a manifesto. And so many people will just ignore it completely, not realising how much influence the Union has in your day to day life.

A lot of people will argue that this power is diminishing, but sabbs will continue to get elected with or without your vote, so by not even voting RON (not Weasley), you are effectively saying that you couldn’t give a shit. When in fact, the reason that you even clicked on this and got so far in reading it, is because you clearly do. Stop acting like you don’t.

Watching candidates who are just not right for the job calling in all of their favours to make this into a popularity contest.

Whilst I think allegedly “joke candidates” are important as part of the process, this only works if they are actually funny. It has been woefully lacking in recent years (RIP Bowater). Not only this, there is this fundamental need to put out gimmick-y slogans, clichéd videos and the same rhetoric to garner the support of students who have heard it all before.

That is what our parents have been fed for years. The same crap that we seem to be plastering over the walls of our university is the same stuff we mock when we see older generations buy into it with national elections. Why do we believe this stuff? We are actively disillusioned from this sort of campaigning and yet for probably the most active student week all year, we go for the easy option. We go for bite size agendas, easy wins and use the word “lobbying” so much it sounds like we are opening a fucking B&B.

We go for bite size agendas, easy wins and use the word “lobbying” so much it sounds like we are opening a fucking B&B.

It is time to start having an honest conversation about real issues before we even get to this week. The Union is working at capacity, but in certain aspects is horribly inefficient. The sabbatical officers seem to do a lot of work, but get very low approval ratings from surveys we have done in the past. It is clear that Warwick Student Union has an image problem – and this disconnect seems to be alienating students.

The process actually works remarkably smoothly. Most students don’t vote and the officers are elected in a minority. The policies brought in upset some students, but they feel disengaged because they didn’t vote and don’t feel represented. The candidates that do run are usually heavily involved in societies or the Union already, who then are disconnected from these disenfranchised students.

The sabbatical officers seem to do a lot of work, but get very low approval ratings

The manifestos that they have (in some cases) are so distant from the typical Warwick student, that there is no way to bridge this gap during Elections Week which funnels more disapproval. There are falling voter turnouts. Those that are closer to the Union become more invested, those that are disenfranchised move further away and those in the middle don’t bring it up – unless someone has a funny video up for their campaign.

This isn’t a Warwick problem, but a wider problem about our engagement with things that actually matter being lost in paint, cardboard, mascots, t-shirts, photos and Facebook pages. How many have you have actually heard the candidates ask you about what you want rather than thrusting their ideas upon you?

How many have you have actually heard the candidates ask you about what you want?

As much as I support the SU and I think these elections are important, I can’t help but have a bitter taste in my mouth after the last three years of listening to the same thing over and over again. There have been a few voices of hope which I have publicly endorsed this year who I think can enact real change. Olly Rice, this year’s Democracy and Development Officer, has taken it much closer to where it should be, especially with ideas such as the live voting stream.

However, should you vote? To be honest, I don’t care and it isn’t my problem. I voted because I want to cash in my investment – I have taken a lot from this building and its people – so 10 minutes of my time to vote on a webpage is the least I can do. I also care about the next team that are coming though because they are my family.

However, should you vote? To be honest, I don’t care and it isn’t my problem.

If you don’t give a shit, then carry on – no one is going to babysit you anymore, you are old enough to reason this out yourself – just don’t complain if this Union doesn’t “represent” in the future…because no one likes a hypocrite, especially a silent one.