Candidates use less effort to campaign this year

After several days of rain showers, a single tattered poster reading "I Love UA" remains barely strapped to a tree trunk on the corner of 34th and Walnut streets.

Despite the fact that campaigning for Undergraduate Assembly and Class Board elections began March 23, the weathered poster had been one of only a few signs around campus, until yesterday when the polls opened.

"First semester you couldn't walk anywhere without seeing three or four posters on every tree," College freshman and incumbent UA candidate Sunny Patel said.

Although Nominations and Elections Chairman Eli Schlam acknowledged a decline in postering, he added that candidates have generally turned to other means of campaigning -- such as e-mail listservs, thefacebook.com and word of mouth.

"There are fewer posters hung but the same amount of campaigning," Schlam said.

College junior and UA candidate Chloe Jacobs added that e-mails and listservs may actually have a greater impact than more traditional campaigning.

"I don't think people look at trees as much as their e-mails," Jacobs said.

However, Patel said that he personally has not seen much use of electronic forms of campaigning and that unlike last semester, he has received no e-mails or facebook messages.

Freshman NEC representative Carrie Alexander expressed disappointment over the lack of visible campaigning.

"I just feel like there's apathy on campus in general," Alexander said. "I don't think there's going to be a great voter turnout. Hopefully there will be."

However, Schlam insisted that the voting rate will remain the same. He added that the use of new avenues for campaigning will be beneficial.

"It will be less based on who has the best signs and catchiest slogans and more on who has the best ideas," Schlam added.

According to Schlam and other UA and NEC representatives, the rain was also a major contributing factor in the decrease of outside posters.

The fact that 26 candidates -- most of whom are vying for Class Board positions -- are running unopposed was cited as another probable cause for the decrease.

"They just assume they'll get re-elected," Alexander said.

The overlap with the final week of many fraternities' pledge periods, the financial expense of printing and hanging posters and general laziness were also cited by various students running for UA positions as potential causes for the lack of postering.

Nonetheless, NEC representatives and UA candidates gathered on College Green yesterday to encourage voting and advertise elections through NEC's annual sponsored "Get Out the Vote" event.

In addition to free food and entertainment, students could meet candidates and discuss student government.

"It would just be great if this campus gave them a little recognition," Alexander said. "I really encourage students to sit down and vote. It's so simple."

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