OTTO VON Bismark once said, "Laws are like sausages; it's better not to see them made." If that's the case, Student Council endorsements are probably like Newcomb's vegan chicken nuggets.
Currently, qualifying candidates sign up with the University Board of Elections, who then provides a list of candidates to official endorsing organizations. From there it's up to the organizations to set up meetings with candidates. Candidates then run the gauntlet from interview to interview, where, behind closed doors, they promise to do whatever it takes to get that specific organization's blessing.
One student who has been through this process is Sam White, a current Student Council representative and candidate for executive vice president. White said that from his experience, some organizations evaluate candidates based on their qualifications, but others base their endorsements on ideology. And when it comes to ideology, "it helps to be a liberal," said White.
That's probably an understatement. White, an active member of College Republicans, also mentioned that other Republicans running for office sometimes ask him to downplay or conceal the fact that they are Republicans.
College Republicans Chair Ali Ahmad concurs that this has recently become a problem, saying that some members have tried to intentionally distance themselves from the organization to avoid being stigmatized by larger endorsing organizations.
The fact that candidates feel like they need to hide their political ideology in order to win an election is unfortunate. After all, what one thinks about taxes or abortion has little to do with his competence to run Student Council.
Even more unfortunate, though, is the fact that some candidates may willingly misrepresent themselves in order to gain votes. Some feel this isn't such a problem, like University Democrats President David Wasserman, who argues, "we can tell who's being sincere."
However, some people are very sincere about getting themselves elected, and it might not always be that easy to tell how honest someone is if one can't know what they are saying to other groups.
I don't doubt anyone's ability to detect sincerity. But when someone is saying exactly what you want to hear, it's a natural human tendency to want to believe them.
One possible remedy would be collaborative endorsement meetings. In such a meeting, representatives from a group of endorsing organizations would gather in an open meeting to pose questions to the candidates.
In such a setting, if the University Democrats asked a candidate a question, the College Republicans, along with every other endorsing group, would also hear the answer. In addition to forcing more accountability and reducing pandering, these open interviews would provide another forum for students to get to know the candidates the same way endorsing organizations do.
Another step to open the endorsing process would be to make publicly available the applications that endorsing organizations sometimes require. Like the open endorsement interviews, this would afford students another opportunity to get to know the candidates as well as forcing candidates to be more open an accountable.
These measures would by no means stop pandering, but at least when two groups' agendas come into conflict, the candidate would have to pick one to pander to.
University Democrats President David Wasserman says the idea of an open endorsement meeting is "not practical." Given the large number of endorsing organizations, each with along list of questions, this is a fair criticism.
However, the issue of openness far outweighs possible logistical difficulties. To make the process more manageable, there could be several open meetings, each with different organizations. Also, it is highly likely that organizations' questions would overlap.
When askedabout possibly changing the endorsement process, Steve Yang, Chair of the University Board of Elections, said his organization is "definitely open to suggestions," but that it would be hard to change the process for this year.
Even if the process can't be changed for the upcoming election, it should be changed soon. Only a transparent race where the focus is not on ideology or popularity will produce competent student leadership. Because, when it comes to Student Council candidates, I like them like I like my chicken nuggets -- not fake.
Herb Ladley is a Cavalier Daily associate editor. He can be reached at hladley@cavalierdaily.com.
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