Ah, the time of the year with the most Facebook spam for college students: Student Government Association (SGA) elections. I’m sure everyone’s thankful voting closed on Tuesday, not to return to Longwood for another year. With that in mind, I propose some guidelines for students who plan on running in the future:
1. If you can’t write a description about yourself and your qualifications, don’t run at all.
I didn’t count, but about a third to half of the people running didn’t bother writing why people should vote for them. If you can’t tell me why I should vote for you, I can’t vote for you. It’s just lazy. Why would I want someone that lazy to be my senator or secretary?
To me, running for a position without a description is like a dog chasing a car. What are you going to do if you get it?
Even if you don’t have a long list of qualifications with previous positions held or other relevant experiences, it’s not that difficult. It’s as easy as mad libs. So easy, in fact, that I’ve written one for potential candidates, just replace the items in parenthesis:
My name is (first name) (last name) and I am a (class rank) (major). I want to be your (position) because I think I would be (adjective) at it. I (have or have not) had experience with the SGA doing (position), (but or and) know that I am a good candidate for (position). My ideas are to improve the (noun) at Longwood University and to facilitate more communication between the SGA and (group of people).
2. Don’t spam the same Facebook page. It’s annoying as hell.
I’m already seeing your post multiple times in other Longwood-related groups; nothing makes me want to vote for you less than seeing it in the same group every day for a week or two. Whether I planned on voting for you or not, seeing the post seventeen times won’t sway me.
3. Don’t assume people who have heard of you will vote for you. And don’t assume people know you.
While on some level this a popularity contest, I probably don’t know you. There are 4,614 undergraduate students at Longwood. The average class size is about twenty-five people, and I’ve taken ten classes so far. Assuming no overlap, I’ve met about 250 people through class. I’m also meaningfully involved with four organizations, and have probably interacted with an additional 100 people through said organizations.
There’s certainly overlap between classes and organizations, but I’ll keep the math simple and optimistic. If we assume little to no overlap, I’ve met about 350 other Longwood students.
So I’ve in theory, met about 7.58 percent of the Longwood student population. That’s not people I know or would necessarily vote for, just the maximum number of people I’ve interacted or spent time with through classes and organizations. For older students, this number could be higher, but the odds still aren’t in your favor.
This circles back to how adding your description can help me know you, just a little bit. Nothing crazy, just your name, major, year and why you want the position.
Don’t talk about unrelated things like your pets or religion - one person actually did this and I sat there thinking, “Separation of church and state, dude.” Even if you don’t use my convenient mad libs, please take the time to write a paragraph or two about yourself and your qualifications.
Just make yourself sound like a human being, not a faceless candidate demanding a position. Is that so much to ask?
