The SU election acclaimation proclaimation

By Gauntlet Editorial Board

Taking a look at this year’s Students’ Union General Election, one can’t help feeling pride to be a student at this institution. Not the status quo sense of pride students at other schools take in their universities, mind you. Nope, it’s the kind of pride that can only come from knowing one is part of a unique and long-held U of C tradition: The pride of not caring about anything but classes, part-time jobs and the daily commute.

This year, two of the five senior SU positions have been acclaimed due to lack of competition. That means student apathy just handed two of the most-influential SU positions to applicants who only had to fill out a few forms to get the job. They’ll get the $32,000 salary for their year, even though nobody reviewed their resumes and qualifications. They didn’t need to do a job interview, and they certainly didn’t need to get out there and earn student votes.

As far as the average undergraduate knows, our new vice-president academic is a painted rock, and our new VP operations and finance can’t balance his own checkbook. Luckily for all of us, both Shannon O’Connor and Cody Wagner have SU experience and seem genuinely interested in using their positions for good rather than evil. They’re both qualified as well, but that’s just a lucky break. In the past, this has been the exception rather than the rule.

Last year a painted rock did run for president, and candidates have often bordered on the bizarre. From campus icon ‘sign-guy,’ who ran last year, to Phil Barski of 2004 Barski’s Cabinet fame, there have always been people more notorious than knowledgable. In most instances an acclamation would have been a disaster, but this time we dodged the bullet.

Well done U of C students! That’s a unique pride indeed. So unique that it almost feels like shame.