punditry.ca — uncovering DSU elections

Busy day, compared to every other campaign Sunday I’ve ever seen.  8 posts on punditry.ca today, not counting this one, so remember to scroll down and read if you haven’t yet…

• Tomorrow is the last day of campaigning; elections materials come down at 8pm.  Get your fill of candidate websites now, there will be a quiz at the end of the ballot.  
  

  Rob LeForte's kittens endorse his candidacy.

• Today was a day of endorsements.  SustainDal endorsed Snow, Hobbs, LeForte, Horne, and Perron-Welch; the Dalhousie-Kings Conservatives apparently endorsed Snow and Hobbs; and Lisa endorsed Zimmerman.  (Also LeForte’s kittens endorsed him.)

• A few surprises there – I would have thought Janet Conrad was a shoo-in for a SustainDal endorsement given her DSUSO credentials, but I guess not.  I had a chuckle at her “it’s not true until it’s on the internet” comment (I paraphrased).  I understand the necessity of examining only those thing candidates put into writing, though I agree it is unfortunate.  DKC stopped after Snow and Hobbs; were the rest of the candidates simply unacceptable?  It’s not like Snow and Hobbs are chugging the Conservative kool-aid.  If it’s about NSPIRG, why didn’t Rai get the nod as well?

• I suspect we will see more endorsements – the JSA usually issues a set, and sometimes A-level societies do as well.  Obviously if you hear of any, let us know.

• Zimmerman joined Snow in calling for an NSPIRG referendum, but it seems she put a bit of distance between her position and his other points.  This news broke during the punditry.ca debate and was posted to her blog.

• punditry.ca hosted the first ever DSU online debate.  I think it went well; though the medium is far from perfect, it has some advantages including the availability of a full transcript.  Thanks to the candidates for adapting well to the software used.  Debogorski couldn’t make it, but I posted his answers to some of the questions.

• Speaking personally, running the debate was a challenge: the technical set up took a while but I did it at my own pace.  For the 2 hours of the debate itself, in addition to moderating the discussion I was carrying on up to 10-15 conversations with people who wanted to ask questions and killing off unruly users (no calling the cops in this house, I /kill first and ask questions later).

• I had an amusing conversation earlier.  Someone sent me a note saying that SustainDal had issued endorsements.  This was news, so I fired up the old web browser to verify the story and post it to punditry.ca.  ”Where did you hear this news?” I asked.  ”… on your site,” came the response.  Heh.  Thanks Mark Coffin for staying on top of these things.

• The Gazette has added two web-only articles, one on the Studley forum and the other on the AGM.

• Glenn Blake promised in a forum that as Senator, he’ll keep us up to date with a blog about the Dal Senate.  That blog has now been created, and he promises to update following the election.

• Janet Conrad has updated her blog and Facebook group with more details about her run at BoG.

• The Facebook group explaining Eric Snow’s position on NSPIRG is seeing some actual conversation, but is hard to find if you don’t know where it is.

• Other candidates with website updates include Horne, Snow, Jennex.

• On the lighter side, the comparison of candidate photos to PM photos was good for a laugh.

• Say what you want about STOP NSPIRG, they’ve done a great job at making their issue a central issue of this election.  Their website includes the statements from the two presidential candidates as well as an amusing list of other things you can do with $4.

• On the other side of the debate, NSPIRG invites you to join them on March 3rd to discuss the corporatization of campus, and to organize efforts to combat this.

• 5000 page views from 700 unique visitors.

SustainDal has released it’s endorsements for this year’s executive. I’ve quoted the meat of the document sent to their mailing list this afternoon, but the highlights are: 

President: Eric Snow

VP Internal: Mark Hobbs

VP Education: Rob LeForte

Board of Governors: Will Horne & Fred Perron-Welch

It is unfortunate that candidates were only ranked on written commitments in their platform, and not the commitments they made during conversations or debates. Actually, its more unfortunate that they haven’t included all of the information they’ve spoken on in their platforms, as I have a feeling the results for some positions would be different. 

While I used to be involved with SustainDal before joining the DSU exec team, I was not involved in the creation of this document. I  can also say that if environmental sustainability was my top voting issue in this election, I would make a few changes to this list. I’ll leave it at that. 

From SustainDal: 

Have you been wondering which candidates to vote for in the DSU election if you’re concerned about environmental sustainability on campus? Well never fear, SustainDal brings you the first ever DSU Electoral Candidate’s Sustainability Report Card! You’ll find the condensed info first, then out methods, then our reasoning, then the exact wording of each candidate’s sustainability platform from their websites.

In short, here’s who you should vote for if environmental sustainability is your key issue

President: Eric Snow

VP (Internal): Mark Hobbs

VP (Education): Rob Leforte

Board of Governors (2 positions): Will Horne and Fred Perron-Welch

Here’s what you need to know about our choices:

·         Ranking is based ONLY on information collected from each candidate’s platform on their website or Facebook group on Sunday March 15th.  This was the only way we could objectively collect information about candidates. We also feel that if sustainability is truly a priority for the candidate, they will mention it in their platform.

·         Comments about sustainability made in conversations, debates or on blog posts that were not part of the official platform were not included. Several candidates expressed their desire to address sustainability issues either in conversations or at the three debates. However we have chosen to compare platform content alone as it is the only way to impartially rank the candidates.

·         This report card is for environmental sustainability alone and does not rank any other topic that may be important to you when choosing a candidate.

·         For one of the VP (Student Life) portfolio there is only one candidate and for the Senate portfolio there are as many candidates as there are positions, and since these candidates will all win regardless of their sustainability platform, we have not ranked them.

·         The information from platforms were compiled, the names of the candidates were removed and an impartial but knowledgeable SustainDal executive ranked the platform points according the extent to which candidates addressed specific issues that are important to the campus sustainability movement or addressed sustainability in some way.

·         We encourage you to use the last day of campaigning (Monday March 16^th until 8pm) to educate yourself about each candidate’s entire platform. Go to www.dsuelections.ca for info on all candidates or go to their personal websites (listed in the Appendix) .

 

 

Here’s our Reasoning

President: This was a VERY close race between Eric Snow and Shannon Zimmerman, both have really great ideas and Eric only won by a small margin. We chose Eric because his sustainability platform includes specific actions he will take, whereas Shannon’s platform suggests more general improvements that need to be made at the administrative level. Both are great, you’ll have to look at non-sustainability-related platform points to make you decision on this one. Greg Debogorski has a single point about making food healthier and cheaper which is great but is only one item on the long list of eco issues plaguing the SUB and the DSU.

VP (Internal): We chose Mark Hobbs because he addresses several very relevant SUB-sustainability issues from food waste reductions, to more vegetarian and vegan options to improving the structure of the DSU sustainability office. We love Craig’s idea for a society sustainability handbook and his practical approach to his portfolio (aka: that he is limited in his ability to set the eco agenda), but we want the VPI to be a strong advocate for a more sustainable SUB and DSU.

VP (Education): We chose Rob Leforte because he wants to pass potential DSU policies through a sustainability review to asses their environmental impact. This could significantly reduce the foot print of the DSU. He also wants to get the late night bus going which will (hopefully) decrease the number of cab rides, or driving from the bar. We agree with Edgar Burns that students need access to better public transit options, but again, we need more than that!

Board of Governors: We chose Will Horne because he is passionate about representing student sustainability concerns at the highest level in the University.  Will is definitely leading the pack on sustainability issues. We chose Fred Perron-Welch because he was the only other candidate to mention sustainability in their platform.

 

Obviously the big news today was Eric Snow calling for NSPIRG reform. Agree with him or not, you have to admit its ballsy. NSPIRG is one of the hot-button issues in the SUB these days, and I rarely see an elections candidate stand up and take a firm stand on a hot issue. Candidates “take stands” on issues all the time, but normally its something entirely uncontroversial: “We need better food on campus.” “Tuition should be lower”. I would imagine the vocal group of people who love NSPIRG will rush to campaign against Eric, and that those groups demanding change from NSPIRG will rush to campaign for him. The possibility exists this election will be determined by how effectively each side mobilizes support.  Debogorski has come out strongly in favor of NSPIRG, while Zimmerman is content to sit this one out.

Mark Coffin offered excellent coverage of this story.  If you aren’t sure what NSPIRG is, Ann Beringer offers an excellent, well-researched story as absent of bias as I think it is possible to be. (If you didn’t click the Read More link the first time you saw it, now is the time).  

The last time I remember a candidate taking a stand that a vocal group of individuals would disagree with was during the student spaces referendum a few years back. (Interestingly, Snow was one of the people who took a stand on that issue, too).

Vikram Rai has publicly stated his support for Eric’s position. At this time it is unknown if other candidates will agree.

Zimmerman issued a correction to her platform, promising to demand amendments to existing policy re: school cancellation.

Today was the residence hockey game, Howe won over Risley, 5-3.  Many candidates were in attendance, and it sounds like everyone had a great time.

Online debate is tomorrow, and I described how that’s going to work.  (actually, in 6 hours)

I discussed Student Appreciation Night last night, and as people woke up (around noonish) and took aspirin (around 30), news came in.  The consensus is that Kris Osmond did an awesome job.  He didn’t say a word about the election, but he also didn’t need to: successful events speak for themselves.  (Lisa weighed in on the night as well).

Every candidate was given a ticket to attend and the chance to volunteer.  Snow, Zimmerman, Burns, LeForte, Jennex, Evans, and of course Osmond volunteered (well done); Harris, Conrad, Simms, Rai, Horne attended (good plan);  Debo, Hobbs, Blake, and FPW were apparently not able to attend.  The latter candidates missed out on a great chance to get some face time with voters.  Hobbs in particular surprises me as typically Union commissioners attend, candidates or not.  Sources tell me Jennex in particular put in a long night spinning the roulette wheel and Burns gave up a work shift to volunteer.  Also of note, CRO Amyotte and some of her committee members put in a long day helping Osmond out.

Will Horne talked a little bit about his (and Meredith Evans’) experience with the music society.  The story is not an unfamiliar one: a somewhat sleepy society is shaken up and achieves a lot in a short period of time.  I’ve seen it happen a few times – Marine Bio, DalOUT come to mind – and I was part of it with the Computer Science Society (two Society of the Year awards in three years, bitches).  The success is typically due entirely to the hard work and long hours of a few people who Get Shit Done (heh, just noticed he used the same words, but I stand by them).  These people are often never happier than when working within their own society, but every now and then a few decide to join the DSU, and typically my advice is: let them.  I’m not saying it has to be THIS position, but find a way to let them contribute.

 Other candidates with updates include Rai,  Jennex, Hobbs, and Debogorski posted some more of his platform.

Slow day on punditry.ca – about 3,000 page views, though still a lot of comments.

Oops, I wrote this, saved it, then went to bed… apparently forgetting to publish it.  My bad.  Here you go, apologies for the delay.

After 5 days on the campaign trail, here’s what’s happening.

• It’s a slow day, so to fill up some space I’ll share with you Mike Smit Elections Central.  From left to right: 1. new-ish IBM thinkpad nicely outfitted.  The built-in screen is used primarily for windows that monitor & configure the punditry.ca server.  This laptop is hooked up to the 22″ widescreen Dell monitor to the right.  You can see it’s a lot brighter than the other three screens, it is my primary workspace.  Right now I have 37 browser tabs open, 101 scratch text files (also tabbed), 6 excel spreadsheets, Photoshop, email, irc, and 2 alternate browsers used for testing.  The next screen is a 19″ Dell monitor showing a browser window with tabs to all candidate homepages & facebooks, set to refresh once every 4 hours.   The page displayed is the blog aggregation page, refreshing every 30 minutes.  It is powered by the laptop on the right, my old IBM thinkpad.  Its screen is used only for twitter aggregation, 30 minute refresh.  These latter two screens are also used for research, or as window space: when I write about candidate platforms, for example, I put the platforms up on a screen so I can read as I work.  I use two logitech wireless keyboard & mouse combos as input devices.  Obviously when I’m away from my desk at my REAL job the first laptop goes with me.  This picture is the perfect blend of tech geekiness and elections geekiness.

Mike's election headquarters

Previously, on the DSU Elections:

• Advance polling: online voting will be available tomorrow (Friday the 13th) from noon until midnight.  No special permission is required to vote; all 15,000 voters have access.  Of course, you won’t be able to return and edit your ballot next week when the polls open again, but your vote will count like anyone else’s.  This is a first for Dal, and is being done because medical students are off next week.

• My personal standpoint is: I beg of you, don’t vote right away unless you absolutely must.  Wait until next week.  There are still 3 full days of campaigning left, including two presidential debates.

• Hey candidates, how does it make you feel that by this time tomorrow some percentage of the votes will be collected, yet the results will be completely unavailable to anyone for 6 days?  Typically I find candidates have trouble with the 2 hours between polls closing on Thursday and the results announcement, so watching them go the 140 hours should be amusing.

• By the way, tomorrow’s (Friday’s) presidential debate in the Grawood has been moved to Monday (2pm in the Grawood, according to an update on Snow’s website).  The online debate is still good-to-go for Sunday at 2pm.

• The Studley debate was covered in-depth here, including observations from Jen Bond and an incredibly detailed and well-written summary from Lisa.

• That said, regarding one of Lisa’s points re: policies and procedures versus consulting students… I think its a bit bizarre to pick one or the other, my suspicion is that Snow meant there was no reason you couldn’t do both (though obviously I have no idea what he actually said).  Regardless, of the two campaign promises, I’d take policies and procedures.  In 9 years of election campaigns, I’ve heard the “more student consultation” promise from about 153 candidates (i.e. all of them), and it carries no weight with me.  It’s a default, obvious promise.  Knowledge of policies and procedures is a measurable trait that is actually useful.  I’ve never heard a candidate promise LESS student consultation, while I have seen many demonstrate very little existing knowledge of policy.  Granted, policy isn’t a hot’n'sexy topic for most people, but I like it.

• Good job to Mark Hobbs for his defense of a momentarily speechless opponent against utterly bizarre and provably false accusations.

• Speaking of crazy, John Hillman posted some videos of the AGM.  I recommend Video #4 in particular, the crazy butterfly guy was everything they said he was and more.

• Today’s Gazette is the election edition; I hear basketball made the cover but the elections goodness is inside.  I am looking forward to the coverage; as you know, the Gazette is a bastion of accuracy and fact-checking, unlike punditry.ca where the lies and filth drip from the walls.  For now you need to be on campus to drink from its papery goodness, but when the online edition goes up some time in April I’ll be sure to let you know.

• If you missed the Election Candidate Video Awards or Mark’s discussion of DSU AGMs, go read.

• Student Appreciation Night is Friday night.  I’ll be sure to save column inches for that.

• Not much action on the candidate blogs.  Will Horne conceded my point from last night, and then I stopped reading. I kid, of course: I read with interest his thoughts on NSPIRG.  Re: DSU vs NSPIRG, fyi there have been relationship problems there for as long as I’ve been on campus.  Every few years things come to a head.  Obviously I agree this is not the way it should be, but just want to make you aware this is not a recent development.

• Re: “As a student I’ll say this: what I want is peace on the issue…and a glaringly obvious opt-out period.”  I don’t want to turn this into a page discussing the usefulness of NSPIRG, but I see inherent conflict in that statement.  NSPIRG has vigorously opposed the opt-out from day one.  In my day at least, every few years they would try to get out of it, typically by just not offering an opt-out period and seeing if anyone would notice.  If you pursue an improved opt-out process, you will not get peace.  
  Actually, I once tried to opt out.  I was doing an internship out of town, and emailed to ask how to do it.  They said I couldn’t.  Not being accustomed to taking “no” for an answer, I persisted.  They emailed me some heinous attachment that was very difficult to open and told me to fill out the form.  I did.  They said they wouldn’t send me money but I could come in person once I was back in town to pick it up.  I did.  They told me they couldn’t give me my money right then, but that I should come back.  I did.  The person who could help me wasn’t there.  I never did get my $2.  Remind me to send them an invoice.

• Per his blog, Eric Snow added items specific to graduate students to his platform.  This is remarkable on two levels: a) a candidate listened to students and updated their platform? Surprisingly, this is rare.  b) a candidate made grad-related issues part of their platform?  Normally that distinction is reserved for the graduate senator.  As a grad student I should be doing more to call candidates out on this issue, and I’m about to start.  If any other candidates have positions or thoughts on grad students, I’d recommend following Eric’s lead and sharing them, soon.

• 139 new comments, and more page views than yesterday (6500 from 900 unique visitors).

Here we go. This is a long one, folks. You might want to get some popcorn and settle in. Rather than save the audience questions for the end of the post, I’ve just lumped them in under each position for ease of reading. I did have to leave a few minutes early, so I missed the last couple of audience questions. Also, I apologize in advance for any sentence fragments, and I have put some of my comments in italics to ensure they are not mixed up with candidate comments.

President

For openers, Snow thanked everyone for attending, mentioned his experience with Senate and HSA, 24-hour study space and food service, and his website. Zimmerman thanked the organizers of the debate, referred to the SUB as her first home rather than her second, and mentioned her experience on Council, BoG, and student societies.

For the first question, candidates were asked to describe their leadership qualifications. Zimmerman said that she has had lots of involvement on all campuses. She feels BoG is the most important role of the President outside the SUB and has experience as current BoG representative. She also feels it is important not to talk only to students, but also to societies, deans, etc. Snow told us he knows the rules and procedures (even wrote some). He knows President is not an all-powerful role and believes there should be consultation beyond Council (athletics, residences, etc.) He wants to get students involved as much as possible and believes the more students that are involved, the better. Zimmerman said she believes in talking to students more than in policies and procedures. She believes in talking to people in all outlets in campus. Snow agrees with consulting with students but said one must understand the procedures for doing this (i.e. know who to go to on various issues).

I must say I’m a little confused by Snow on this one. I understand that one might need to know how certain networks are structured to find the most efficient way of addressing and issue, but in terms of direct consultation with students, I don’t believe we need to refer to any policy.

Question two was about media attention. Is it good or bad? How will they present the image of the DSU? Snow said he’s no stranger to media and isn’t shy to speak to crowds. He sees media attention as a double-edged sword (Everyone wants a piece of you, eh Eric?) He is looking into getting official media training. Here, Zimmerman made her first of a couple references to the Executive Team. She would consult with other members of the Executive because they should be working together on representations to media. She believes media should be used to educate and give background on issues facing the Union, and that the Exec should resume weekly interviews with CKDU that started and stopped at some point this year. She would endeavour to have student consultation before speaking to media. While Snow agrees on consultation with Exec, he pointed out that the President takes responsibility, as official spokesperson, for what is said. Zimmerman also raised the fact that the DSU has a General Manager and Communications Coordinator whose strategic capabilities can help executive who are new to interacting with media.

Question three was about the strategic plan/Imagine DSU. Candidates were asked what was the most pressing issue students raised this year during Imagine. They were also asked about the future of Imagine. Zimmerman mentioned the campus master plan, 24-hour study space, and local food service. She feels it was a good idea to have a full-on campaign this year rather than a single event, but feels the process has lost momentum. She thinks the process should start at the beginning of the year, rather than waiting until the Winter term to have consultations. Snow agreed that students raised 24-hour study space and the master plan, but feels local food on campus was the biggest issue. He wants more comment cards near services in order to find out how to pursue student interests.

In closing, Zimmerman plugged her website and said her name twice in addition to her URL. Snow plugged his Website and five campaign points, saying his name once in addition to his URL. Someone’s taking my advice.

Check out the rest of the recap after the jump.

Read more…

Lisa, John and I were all at the Studley debate today.  I think Lisa’s going to do a full recap, so I’ll just stick with a few of my “friendly observations.”

President:

Only Snow and Zimmerman showed up.  Debo made a cameo during the VP Education portion of the programme, but had left by the general question period.  I’m sure he had a class.  I’m also sure half of the other candidates also had a class…but I digress.

Snow isn’t confident at the podium, Zimmerman looks relaxed and at ease.   Zimmerman doesn’t have awesome voice modulation, Snow is an engaging speaker.  They both need to work on their eye contact.

They both answered questions well, but let’s face it, this is for all the marbles, they aren’t going to screw it up.

VP Internal:

Can we just elect them both?  They are so committed and really know their stuff.  I am concerned/confused about Mark’s plan to have a DSU website that can be updated by anyone.   There’s info on his website about how we could do this. I have no question that it *can* be done, I’m just not sure we *should* do it.   Mark did, however, show that he was a class act when he stood up for his opponent in the face of attack.  Bravo.

VP Education:

I’m surprised how much Burns knows for being a newbie to the scene (he’s so young looking I feel like if I got close enough, he’d smell like womb).  LeForte demonstrated that he knows both a whole lot about the intricacies of PSE funding and also how to tie a double windsor knot.  I approve of both.   Once again CASA is a hot topic.  Burns says we should drop down to associate member status.  He hasn’t given me a good reason why.

VP Student Life:

Kris is running unopposed.  Like John, I say if he wants the job again, we should give it to him.

Senate:

Best.  Race.  Ever.  Between Simms’s quirkiness, Evans’s adorable/genuineness and Blake’s general smile inducingness, this is by far the best group to listen to.   Big points to everyone for reading up on the Academic and External committee and coming to class knowing the answer. Extra points to Simms for picking up the microphone so that he didn’t have to slouch at the podium (Snow, Burns et al. take note!)

Board of Governors:

Why aren’t these people running the country?  They’re all so well-qualified and eloquent it makes me a little queasy.  Give me something to nitpick about, people!

Harris has commented many a time about how he was the President of “another institution” and he used to live in Antigonish…people can put two and two together Harris, why not just tell them that magical institution was St. FX?  Also, would it kill FPW or Horne to smile?  I know BoG is all serious and stuff, but come on.  Look at that, I totally found stuff to talk about.  Crisis averted.

There were general questions from the audience (which was quite full, actually.  Nice one) but I only half paid attention.  Bad pundit.  Lisa took better notes than I did.