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| pennstateupua.com |
Wednesday, March 28, 2012 probably
won’t stand out in my memory a year from now. Actually, it’ll probably fade
into relative obscurity in two weeks. But today, however, as I’m writing this,
I am obviously able to pick out and distinctly remember today’s details. I
overslept; I had a bagel and a strawberry smoothie for lunch; I presented and
watched social issue movies in LA101H. I was also constantly stopped on campus
by campaigners and reminded to vote today in the UPUA (or University Park
Undergraduate Associate) elections.
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| pennstateupua.com |
Wait, what? That’s a thing? And
elections were today? Okay, it’s entirely my fault that I don’t know more about
our university’s student-run government. I mean, I think I know just about as
much as every other freshman. And by that I mean I’ve heard TJ Bard (the
current president of UPUA) speak and knew of its existence. Irresponsible, I
know. This kind of bothers me. I want to do my civic duty. I want to be able to
help ensure that the people responsible for representing the entirety of
undergraduates have good ideas and ways of accomplishing those ideas. I wanted
to vote, as I told campaigners in passing as I was rushing to my classes.
But one thing stood in my way. I
knew nothing about the candidates. I couldn’t make an informed decision about
who to vote for. And I definitely didn’t have the time to run around to
everyone stationed on campus to hear his or her spiel on their intended actions
should they be elected.
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| flickr.com |
As much as I wanted to stop and
chat with candidates, I couldn’t. I wished that I had heard about this before
election day. As I said before, part of it is my fault as I wasn’t as
conscientious as I could have been. But those running for office should
understand that, and act accordingly by campaigning and getting their ideas
heard ahead of time in order to build a voter base. You wouldn’t run for
president and simply expect people to know who you are or what you stand for. I
know it must be hard on such a large campus to reach everyone. I know it’s a
lot to handle on top of classes, but rhetorically speaking, I wasn’t persuaded
by any candidates. Not in such a short amount of time. In order for rhetoric to
work, you have to have the public’s attention in the first place. And I
definitely knew nothing about the UPUA elections until this morning. As much as
that plate of free cookies appealed to me when I was rushing in between classes
with no time for a snack, it wasn’t enough to get me to vote randomly and
somewhat irresponsibly for those I knew nothing about, socially or politically.
In order for campaigns and their rhetoric to be truly effective, time must be
allotted to allow for the spreading of one’s message or ideas.
I understand what you mean...
ReplyDeleteI wanted to vote and participate but I feel like the election was only for someone who is running and his/her friends. They did put the poster and campaign ads on the walls and news, howerver it was not that effective.