You’ve never seen students so excited to be in school. Supporters of both slates – Action bedecked in blue, Your Concordia in a variety of colours – chanted and cheered to get pumped up for the first official night of Concordia Student Union elections campaign.
To a backdrop of whoops and cheers, it was revealed that Action’s presidential candidate, Concordia undergraduate psychology association president Khalil Haddad, would face off against Your Concordia’s candidate, current CSU councillor Lex Gill, in this month’s elections.
The presidential candidates were on the same wavelength when preparing their slate – the fight against tuition hikes and greater transparency are at the top of their priority list.
Gill touched upon last Wednesday’s CSU council meeting as indicative of a problem with transparency. “That meeting was a visible display of the disconnect between the current executive and most councillors, and students sort of broadly and I think trying to close people out of a room isn’t a solution to problems,” she said. ‘’Accountability and transparency isn’t a campaign promise, it’s an expectation for the job. It’s a job requirement.’’
Haddad pinpointed the allegations of financial mismanagement that have arisen with the resignation of VP Sustainability Morgan Pudwell, who is now running with Your Concordia. “There’s been a lot of rumours going on about financial mismanagement and personally I’ve been very disappointed about this year,” he said. “We want to really bring something new to students. We want to ensure that financial transparency is something that is extremely important and then way we’re going to go about it is by informing students, because i think that is what it comes down to.’’ With that in mind, he plans to make monthly budgetary reports available to students online.
The teams set off to poster their way through the Hall building shortly before midnight. But, before the supporters rushed upstairs, chief electoral officer Oliver Cohen explained that in the interest of order this year, supporters would be forced to wait after postering each floor before rushing up to the next one. In that manner, a crowd of face-painted students bearing armfuls of campaign posters built up at the escalators on each floor before they were allowed to burst forth to each floor. As soon as they were allowed onto the first step of the escalators they would rush to fill up the allotted board space.
Students will wake up to see the faces of their student government candidates across campus, but will also be able to find out more about their candidates from profiles to be posted on the CSU’s elections website in the coming days. Elections take place Mar. 29 through 31.
I still think the whole postering rush/craze is a stupid and outdated idea. Democracy rests on reliable access to information, right? So rather than having students clawing at and trying to kill one another for billboard space – as they have for years to date, even if less visibly in this article – why not have the CEO guarantee that EVERY billboard showcase X posters from each slate, and let the slates decide which go where.
Very hard concept to understand, I know, but maybe, just maybe, a group of aspiring undergrads might agree it’s the logical step.