The large number of candidates running for elected positions this year bodes well for the future of the union. What many candidates running may see as potentially detrimental to their campaigns given the heated competition that will occur around the contested races, can only be good in the long run for the union. In the past, the sabbatical officer elections have suffered because of the lack of variety in candidates – similar ideas propagate, and are rehashed every couple of years. For a brief period a few years ago, it seemed as though we had been promised plans for a student kitchen or a student centre every other year, with neither materialising until recently.
A large pool of candidates coming from a range of backgrounds, with vastly different experiences and ideas about what direction the union should be moving towards can only be positive. More diversity propagates more ideas. If there are more ideas, there will be more discussion around what the union can achieve. The expectations placed upon it in areas of representation, services offered, and its mission statement and focus are opened up to the wider student population for argument and debate.
In recent years, an air of stagnancy has plagued the union, with slow movement towards big changes and a vacuum of ideas. Small pools of candidates for each position meant that candidates rarely aimed high in terms of their manifesto promises, and often the force of personality prevailed in elections with few candidates. The hope this year is that, with more candidates and more voices echoing around campus, voters will be forced to engage with the ideas, rather than the people who are running. A smiley face and a quick conversation in the Arts Block have sufficed before, but the likability factor should not be allowed to cloud our judgement when we arrive at the polling stations this year.
With more candidates from more backgrounds we find ourselves faced, potentially for the first time, with a truly representative pool of potential sabbatical officers, who embody the diverse spirit of the Trinity population. As campaigns begin in two weeks time, once we set campaign rivalries aside, the atmosphere of ideas and positive change that these elections represent will shine through and, no matter who is chosen, foreshadows a more representative and forward-thinking union as a whole.
Also in Editorial this week: Cautioning Against Disregarding Parts of the Constitution
Written by the Editorial Board of The University Times
