University of Virginia Library

Election Alert

Last week's Student Council special
election for the College seat vacated by a
disgruntled Tony Sherman and for another
newly created College seat generated little
interest and enthusiasm. Elections at the
University have become painful processes,
characterized by indifference and mediocrity,
that are periodically thrust upon the students.
The campaign dialogue has become all too
predictable. The platforms and often the
candidates are outright bores.

Especially in undergraduate elections the
first-year dormitories have provided the
battlefield for the would-be officeholders as
they spend endless hours tramping through
corridors and suites trying to garner the
first-year student's precious vote. Evidence
that the typical campaign here has become an
unbearable bore can be seen on any first-year
hall: when John Politico strides into a suite,
almost every student bolts under his bed, in
his closet, or out the window to avoid lengthy
political harangues by the candidate.
Upperclassmen can sadly testify that once
you have seen one election at the University,
you have seen too many.

What is the solution to this dilemma? For
starters all elections could be abolished and an
alternative procedure for filling up positions
could be adopted. However, that we do not
recommend. On one hand what is needed is
more interest in elections taken by the
student body at large. Instead of ignoring the
position papers of the parties and avoiding the
candidates like the plague, the student should
examine the issues and the candidates
carefully before voting. But we sympathize
with the student. The real solution for ending
lacklustre elections is for the various political
parties to spend much more time finding
outstanding candidates well in advance of the
deadline for the election.

Too often party leaders spend hectic hours
just before their conventions begging students
to toss their hats into the political ring.
Students should be approached long before
the last possible moment. These students, if
they are interested in the job, should run for
the office, instead of backing out for fear of
competition. Too often excellent students
with tremendous potential are wasted, and, as
a result, some second stringers end up with
the political reins.

Just before the Christmas Break the
regular fall elections for both Student Council
and Judiciary Committee positions will be
held. There will be three seats for Student
Council open in the College and one each in
the Schools of Architecture, Graduate Arts
and Sciences, and Engineering. The Judiciary
Committee will have three College positions,
two Engineering positions, and one Law,
Architecture, Graduate Arts and Sciences, and
Medicine seat available. Qualified students
should start planning their campaigns for
these positions right now so that we will be
spared another tedious, boring student
election.