ASPSU campaign deja vu

Lower tuition. Transparency in student government. More sustainability on campus. Have you heard these campaign issues buzzing around from more than one candidate this year, or previous years for that matter?

There seems to be a common theme in campaign platforms these last few student government elections, which raises the question: How do candidates choose the issues that they run on, and why do certain themes keep making a come back each election cycle? What is the value of campaign platforms to student body?

The Vanguard decided to ask two current student government workers and a political science professor for their insight into the matter.

“A lot of the issues with platforms and repetition are institutional memory,” said Kyle Cady, current ASPSU vice president.

From his five years of experience in student government, Cady said the pattern of repeating themes in student campaign platforms is partly due to presidential hopefuls being naive to what’s been done before.

“Most people come in here very ambitious about what they like to do and what they want to see changed. [But] they don’t necessarily do their research,” Cady said.

ASPSU intern Sean Rains said that many people who become student government leaders haven’t mapped out a specific plan.

“Most of the people that run for student government do so without terribly sophisticated ideas of what they want to do,” Rains said. “So they take the same platforms that have been there year after year.”

The lack of “sophisticated ideas” comes from many candidates who run that often don’t have extensive background in student government, Rains said.

Cady relates the importance of background research to the campaigning process outside of the university environment.
“In real government there’s tons of work done in studies, in work groups, in policy, that doesn’t necessarily happen your first term in office, but it was looked at before you got there,” Cady said

But there are noticeable differences between the microcosm of student government and national government.

“At the university level, on the other hand, voters don’t have a recognizable party label that they can rely on in deciding who to support,” political science professor Chris Shortell said.

Since ASPSU doesn’t follow the country’s two-party political system, Shortell says platforms are a valuable tool for student candidates.

“Platforms are an easy way to communicate that information in a simple format that will help voters decide which candidate would best represent their interests,” Shortell said.

The lack of two dueling political parties might also be a result of homogenous and relatively benign platforms.

“Our issues aren’t very controversial. They’re things that everyone wants to deal with. Everybody would like a free FlexPass, everybody would like more library hours,” Rains said.

Do these re-occurring platforms, such as lower tuition, free FlexPasses and ASPSU transparency—especially if those campaign promises haven’t been fulfilled—keep fellow students away from the polls? It depends on who you’re talking to, Rains said.

“I don’t know if that makes a difference, but for those of us who are engaged, there’s a certain point where it does make you a little cynical,” Rains said.

Cady admits that despite ASPSU’s successes, there are some unrealized campaign platforms that keep coming back to the slate.

“It’s a learning process,” Cady said.

He added that there are often financial and time constraints that new leaders sometimes are not always prepared for.

“You might do research all you can, but you still don’t understand until you’re in the middle, and then you have a year to do it while running a team,” Cady said. “It’s such a big, phenomenal task that’s out there.”