Easy with the promises
Election time is upon us and soon our grey campus will be brightly redecorated with garish posters, competing with one another in terms of blinding brightness and extravagant promises. But for the moment these colourful pages are just rough copies on personal computers and vague ideas in the heads of candidates.
There is a long, and sadly well-respected, tradition in this Union of election hopefuls promising everything and anything in exchange for student votes. Take current YUSU President Anne-Marie Canning as an example. One would be hard pressed to fault her performance in office this year or to cast doubt on the tenacity with which she has worked for student interests. Yet in the run up to last year’s Union elections Canning adorned her posters with an extravagant promise to get a pharmacy on campus, designed to cater for students’ medical needs. The same promise has been made countless times in recent years, never with any success, and more importantly never with any real chance of success. Today, an older and wiser Canning will readily admit the pharmacy idea was never likely to fly. The list of similar promises by other officers, from Matt Burton’s “YUSU Arena” to Amy Woods’ “campus takeaway”, is depressingly extensive.
As they draw up their campaign literature this year’s candidates would do well to think long and hard about whether the promises they are about to make publicly are realistic and achievable. Students, especially those in the crumbling accommodation of the older colleges, are by nature sceptical of high flying promises to magically improve their conditions.
There is no shame in making a pragmatic assessment of what the issues are and what best possible outcomes exist. In fact, student voters are more likely to warm to those with realistic goals than those who promise the moon but make an unconvincing case for how they will bring it down to Earth. This is not to say that candidates should not aim high but aspirations must be balanced with a sense of reality.
An almost universal chorus amongst this year’s field of candidates is the need to engage more with students and widen participation among the Union membership. The first step in this process must be restoring faith in the idea that when a election promise is made it is carefully considered and will not be committed to if it does not stand a reasonable chance of success. Big promises may make for nice posters in the short term but can lead to a serious credibility deficit in the long.
