Alex Kvaskov
Assistant News Editor
For the sake of whichever deity you worship, vote.
And if you worship money, all the more reason. Your hard-earned fees are at the stake, the flames which will burn holes in your pockets.
Where, in what, for whom? Why, the York Federation of Students elections are here again. Spring seems to be a good time not only for flowers but also student politicians as they mushroom into existence, climb out of the primordial ooze, and troll for votes throughout the halls.
History tells us most of us won’t vote. Only about one out of every 12 students eligible to vote in the YFS elections actually votes. General apathy combined with name recognition and a number of institutionalized perks for incumbent candidates running for re-election make it difficult to actually unseat an incumbent slate.
But it’s crucial to vote this week, even if you’re not driven by revolutionary zeal.
Not only will a high turnout motivate slates to step up their game, but students might finally put up what would look like a semblance of civic participation.
With democratic engagement generally low, for some students, voting in the YFS election might be their first time voting.
Voting even in something seemingly inconsequential as a student union election develops habits useful for citizens of a democratic state. Voting includes engaging with the issues in your community and sifting through the labyrinthine sales pitches peddled by politicos.
Voting also means developing critical thinking skills by contrasting competing claims and telling the politicians what really matters to you.
Granted, the usual way that angry and concerned York students speak out is by posting snarky memes online.
However, you have a chance at an impromptu therapy session to vent out to when you approach the budding politicians and speak your mind to soon-to-be power. Don’t be intimidated or put off if they feed you their practiced, well-polished sound bites, just keep asking questions.
[su_quote]Moreover, keep in mind that you’re dealing with “pro-am” activists, intent on selling you their vision of the universe and the ways in which things should be arranged. Does that vision include you?[/su_quote]
Although some student activism out there is cringeworthy, ranging from the humorous-like crusades to institute trigger warnings, to concerning Orwellian safe space initiatives, student politics does find time to address every-day issues like bus fare and food on campus, issues which, I hope, are apolitical and nonpartisan. Then again, is anything apolitical?
In fact, boring, local, and daily issues could serve to unify divided students. In my conversations with campaign insiders, some have insisted that a successful slate will go after the vast majority of disengaged students, as opposed to fighting for a piece of the already divided activist student pie.
Politics does involve pandering to the base audience and chances are, if you’re not active in student life on campus, you’re probably not part of the YFS’ target audience. The students who are engaged on campus are the same ones voting in YFS elections (usually for the incumbents).
While the vast, non-voting majority may well support the YFS, we just won’t know until these students actually vote. There is nothing wrong in giving the YFS a stronger mandate. In fact, it’s preferable to the current state of affairs when 10 per cent vote in representatives for everyone else.
[su_quote]Bottom line: it would be great to hear students’ voices but they’re drowned out by the deafening silence of apathy. [/su_quote]
So what would a higher voter turnout do for student politics at York?
It would expose incumbent slates to critique from segments of the student body who are usually written off. That’s not to suggest the YFS has something to hide, but in the words of a former YFS candidate, activists must hold themselves to the same standards as they do to their targets.
In addition, YFS initiatives may differ in their outcomes depending on the way the vote goes, just like real-life voting has consequences in the policy realm as well as tangible physical effects. As I’ve said before in these pages, student politics are a microcosm of real politics, the only difference being the scope and size.
As we mature and transition from student to adult life, the politicians and issues around us grow inexorably until they become all-encompassing and omnipresent. Practice brings improvement, and voting in your student union election is a good place to start in developing your democratic sense before the political media circus becomes overwhelming.
Students are already voters in a myriad of ways from municipal, to provincial, to federal elections. Similarly, our status as undergraduates automatically qualifies us as voters with the YFS, even if many aren’t aware.
I wager that many York students found out about the YFS for the first time throughout the last two weeks. Some will be dismayed by their hopscotch through campus choke points, which are made even worse by strangers trying to chat them up. But the antiquated cliché holds: your disinterest in politics won’t stop politics’ interest in you.
Critics will say it doesn’t matter who you vote for and the elephant in the corner is the university itself, and the YFS is small potatoes with a $3.2 million budget, while York has a $1 billion budget.
The YFS doesn’t grant degrees, nor does it screw up your schedule, enrollment status, or payments. It doesn’t raise tuition every single year, and doesn’t control a single building on campus, in contrast to the dozens of buildings subject to York’s administrative tyranny, along with countless resources.
York is a large corporation with tremendous influence, dictating, to a large extent, our very futures. We’re on the grid, and York’s the electrical socket powering this whole mortal coil.
Pro-YFS factions will insist that standing up to the corporate York monster is exactly the reason we must flock to our student union. To their credit, the YFS protests against tuition hikes and has supported CUPE in their conflict with York last year, although tuition has yet to go down.
Further, all the talk of the importance of voting doesn’t address the question whether the elections process is fair or ethical. Much controversy surrounds elections bylaws and procedures, as incumbent candidates running for another position are advantaged in that they cannot take more than one three-credit course per semester, while opposition candidates seeking to claw their way to power have to attend classes while campaigning.
Opposition slates often allege that incumbent slates keep the election under wraps to discourage turnout. It also remains an open question whether any opposition slate with a majority of seats on the YFS Board will implement real change to boost the union’s transparency and accountability, or seek to cling to power for as long as possible.
So what’s to be done? As the meme goes, “keep calm and carry on.” Just know the individuals and institutions seeking to rule you are out in force this week, giving you a prime opportunity to question them.
Question the living daylights out of them, but also remember that democracy does not end at the moment you vote. Whoever is ultimately elected, we must keep their toes to the fires of public scrutiny. For instance, lobbying is not a promise to achieve a goal. You may want to ask would-be executives what they will realistically achieve.
Find a way to chat and otherwise interact with your alleged representatives, even if it feels like they’re completely out of touch. Difficult as it is to make your voice heard when you’re actively involved, it is incomparably harder when you willfully abnegate your right to that voice.
