The University of Connecticut has opened the process to run for elections for student leadership positions, including Undergraduate Student Government at UConn Storrs, Student Government Association at UConn Stamford and the Student Trustee role on the board of trustees. Zealous candidates have already begun launching campaigns for different offices, making promises to bring student voices to the halls of power. But in distinguishing themselves as the best people for the job, candidates also risk blending into the annual chorus of lofty, ill-defined promises that students may easily dismiss as superficial.
This week, Opinion writers answer: What can aspiring student leaders do to meaningfully reach their constituents?
Nell Srinath, Opinion Editor
I hate to be cynic (lie), but running for USG or Student Trustee can easily look more like politician practice than genuine student advocacy. And while I don’t doubt that there are students with genuine intentions of sparking institutional change by working with the administration and board of trustees, I also think it’s true that we’ve seldom seen examples of meaningful opposition to tuition hikes, bureaucratic bloat or excessive construction projects that make this university more exclusive. What I would like to see from more student candidates for elected office is legitimate promises to stand up to the people in high positions and call them out for a decade of policies that erode the “public” in this public flagship university. I want a representative who is willing to bring shock and awe to Wilbur Cross North Reading Room once a month or make those administrators have to rethink if their six-figure salaries are worth it. “Student voices” are dead, long live student fury! (╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻
Dan Stark, Associate Opinion Editor
My biggest problem with student candidates is how corporate and bland their social media and marketing are. Whenever I see an Instagram page for student candidates, especially those for USG, it feels like they copy and pasted the first Canva template they saw and pasted the most generic message possible about “representing the students.” This cookie-cutter approach actively discourages students from voting for them, as who would want to vote for the same old status quo? Candidates need to make their messaging and social media more personal and unique if they want to rally students to turn out to vote. A perfect example of this is the social media page for student trustee candidate Eric Meade. Unlike most other student candidates, Meade has promoted accountability in a way that feels genuine and has relied on memes to rally his base of support.
Tomas Hinckley, Weekly Columnist
One thing I want more of from political candidates is realistic expectations based on an understanding of what USG is capable of. How many students who aren’t involved in USG actually know about its inner workings or real capabilities? I think it’d be helpful for candidates to explain more of their powers, the abilities of these powers to actually make things happen within USG and the overall capabilities of USG to actually carry out their policy. To give a personal example, I honestly have no idea what a Comptroller is. Making USG more transparent to students is what I want, to put it simply. Then once you start with that base of being on the same page all your promises can actually be examined by the public and seen to be either way too big or way too small. As students our individual powers within this system are inherently small, even in these elected positions. If someone tells you they’re actually trying to make change or take action as the UConn Foundation’s undergrad representative they’re lying to you, they have no power. I think acknowledging that and answering the question of what you plan to do in spite of that is important.