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feature 13
Volume 104, Issue 26
S S
tudents’ Union elections are a bewildering world for the average student to make sense of, and when faced with a whopping 20 candidates vying for six positions, this year’s voters are swamped with selection and craving guidance. That’s why The Gateway’s Election Dissection united three SU experts to cut through the clutter and bring you the inside scoop. News Editor Michelle Mark and Staff Reporter Andrea Ross chatted with the panel one week into campaigning to scrutinize each and every candidate, and conclude who will — and who should — represent you in 2014–15.
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Written by Michelle Mark and Andrea Ross Photos by Alana Willerton
The
: l e n a P Credits credits credits by whoever April Hudson is the former News
Editor of The Gateway for the 2012–13 publishing year, and served as the Staff Reporter for 2011–2012. She knows the ins and outs of the Students’ Union all too well, and has scrupulously covered student politics and SU elections for the past several years.
Colten Yamagishi was last year’s
SU President, and served as Vice-President (Student Life) the year before. A recent grad of the University of Alberta’s School of Business, Yamagishi has taken a well-earned departure from campus life and student governance, but has still been following this year’s elections closely.
Panel impressed by number of women running, overwhelmed by amount of total candidates
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anelists launched into the discussion by acknowledging the highly competitive nature of this year’s election. Hudson said she was impressed to see an increased female presence in the race — there are six women running for executive positions, four of which are going for the Vice-President (Academic) position. The total amount of candidates has also doubled from last year’s election, which Hudson said is a positive sign.
“I think that’s fantastic. In past years, it’s always been an issue that we don’t have very many people run and I think it’s better to have an overload of candidates than not enough,” she said. But panelists were also wary of the idea that more is better. Way said the number of candidates meant she had trouble doing extensive research on each candidate’s platform because of the sheer amount. She speculated voters will find it overwhelming, but dismissed the issue as part the cyclical nature of SU elections. “This just happens every once in a while,” she said, referring to the similarly large amount of candidates who ran alongside Yamagishi in
Nikki Way
is a self-described “non-hack hack” of the SU. A student in the Faculty of Agriculture, Life and Environmental Sciences, Way has served on a number of SU committees and initiatives, such as the Sustainable Food Initiative. She’s also managed several campaigns for candidates in SU executive elections and Students’ Council elections throughout her undergrad.
2012. “It gets to a point that I think the average student, if they want to be engaged, they can’t tell the candidates apart after a while.” Yamagishi said having five candidates in the VP (Student Life) and VP (Academic) races “changes the dynamic” of voting. Candidates’ campaign materials and websites become all the more important in such highly contested races, he said. “There’s a hotbed of issues this year that people are pulled towards running … I think we need to give credit to the current executive for inspiring people to run for these positions too,” he said.
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