As everyone is quite well aware, the season of campaigning for both the President and Vice President positions in the Undergraduate Government of Boston College (UGBC) has been in full swing for the last couple of weeks. Furthermore, as everyone should be able to agree upon, this “campaigning” provides the students with much more of an annoyance than either an awakening of political interest or feelings of actual representation on campus.
Although there are those individuals who resent such an argument, the sad truth of the matter is that the election process in school systems does not work at all as it should; of course, we have known this since our days in elementary school when kids were promising no more detention and extended recess time. During the college years, it is most often that the students are just too apathetic to the issues at hand. As a result of this, the college election process has been reduced to the meager level of a high school popularity contest.
As an example, consider the fact that if you asked all the students on campus, it would be discerned that the great majority of them would not even have the slightest clue as to the platforms and agendas on which the candidates were running. Rather, students are apt to pledge their allegiance either based on personal connection and affiliation with the candidate or, much worse, for the most trivial of reasons imaginable – the worst I have heard so far being based on the uniqueness of the name of the candidate (in which case the unanimous winners have always been the tandem of Kris Munden for President and Talal Rojas as Vice President).
Moreover, the question of student harassment poses another problem for the college election process. Indeed, most students would agree that there are few and far between who would be willing to put up with annoying harassment just outside of Hillside Dining at 9:00am, or to have permanent damage done to eardrums because of the megaphones that student-candidates have been using while campaigning in the Quad. And consider the environmental implications for a college that is supposedly devoted to the “going green” movement; campaign flyers, buttons and stickers are being littered all over campus. And even though harassment is a common annoyance for the election process in general, it appears to be magnified on the college campus due to everyone’s close proximity with one another.
Without question, some will consider this point of view far too cynical in nature – and perhaps it does come off as such – but it is the truth of the matter. It is perceived as much more of a burden than it is a benefit for the community. This should in no manner be interpreted as an argument against the UGBC, for this organization has done so much positive work for that same community; however, it should be realized that there must be a better and more efficient approach for campaigning, one that does not impinge upon the sanity of the students.
The official website for the UGBC claims that the election process provides, “a great way for students to get involved on campus, get their voice heard and potentially shape next year’s UGBC.” However, the fact is that these election campaigns do not so much serve the purpose of providing an outlet through which individual students are able to get involved and be heard; rather, the campaigns just serve the special interests of a few individuals, representative of just one more thing that the lucky winner gets to use to augment their future job and/or graduate studies application. Do not let yourself fall prey to the naïve and idealistic thinking, but recognize the process for what is really is – an annoyance for us all.
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