More Than A Pretty Face

The e-mail sent to our Jaguar1 accounts advertised Mr. and Miss Jaguar as the South Alabama king and queen of basketball season. This means the two people selected represent the school as the epitome of what a Jaguar should be.

I happened to be in the Honors Center when SGA Vice President Kim Proctor walked in and brought applications for honors students to fill out, and she said that some of us should apply since we do so much for the University.

We looked at each other and talked about how we would be uncomfortable campaigning for ourselves.

To campaign for yourself is to put your own image on the line with no possible excuse and no barrier. You can’t blame a mistake on a publicist or employee; you have yourself in charge. What you do reflects who you are.

In light of that, I do not understand why people would simply paste a picture of themselves on a poster and type their names in 64 point font, and throw them up around campus and expect people to vote for them.

While this election is simply a formal popularity contest, I do see it as important. The two people elected are supposed to be two people representing the spirit of the University. The last time I checked, spirit was not based on who has the nicest stationery for flyers and creativity on a sheet sign.

I would feel better if these people said something about themselves, or listed a few things that they are involved in to show why students should vote for them. The reason that people don’t vote on this campus is because no one knows who the hell the candidates are.

I remember being annoyed in the SGA elections, too, and actually commenting on the10,000 Facebook groups that I was invited to and asking them to state their platform. Some candidates did and thus received my vote.

While being a senator is far more important than Mr. or Miss Jaguar, I still believe that anything representing our University publicly should be regarded with more seriousness.

Candidates should also use tact when designing flyers and sheet signs. Recently, a candidate removed a sheet sign because it was deemed offensive. It displayed a large hurricane symbol with the words “Evacuating the Competition” advertising for a candidate named Katrina.

I later found out this candidate was from the Mississippi Gulf Coast and suffered from Hurricane Katrina herself, and she is also very involved on campus. She should have advertised her campus involvement instead of making fun of a devastating hurricane.

I cannot fathom how someone could use such poor judgment to mock one of the worst natural disasters of all time on a campaign sheet sign.

Now, don’t get me wrong: waiting in line for an hour for gas was hilarious, and having to line up for emergency food from the government was great, but the evacuation was the best part. Those happy memories made me smile warmly when I first saw Katrina’s campaign sign.

But all sarcasm aside, candidates for any office, post, or position should have to do more than get people to remember their names. A simple reason a person wants the title would suffice, or a link to a Facebook page that details more about what they stand for instead of just desperate all-caps titles begging for votes.

College elections are always going to be about popularity, and who can force others to vote on the most e-mail accounts, but candidates who care about how they represent their character to the outside world should step it up. Candidates should establish themselves as something more than just a name. It’s insulting to students to think we can be convinced merely by a sign that directs us to vote for you.

If you’re running for a particular position, tell us why it is important to you. By explaining your platform, we know why we’re voting, and more students might even take the time to vote at all. When it all comes down to it, the entire student body doesn’t know who you are, so give us a little more than a pretty face and expensive paper.