March 4th marked the last day of the UBC AMS election period and welcomed in the new candidates for the 2016-2017 school year. I want to start off by congratulating the candidates who won a spot in the AMS, and pay respect to those who were not elected but certainly put a lot of time and effort into their campaign. Although this election period left us with talented representatives to represent us in the upcoming year, it seems as if there were more negatives to the campaign season this year than positives.
Instead of an election season focused purely on the platforms of the candidates running, there was a lot of background noise and distraction to navigate through. The article, “Opinion: “The Ubyssey 2016 Election Coverage: When Bias Supplants Truth in News”, which was published last week on the HCUBC site, has already done an excellent job addressing the problematic coverage of the AMS election by the Ubyssey. In brief summary, this piece addresses the bias that the Ubyssey showed towards particular candidates and its articles, such as “The best and worst AMS candidate websites”, that crossed the line when it attacked and made fun of a few of the candidates.
For the election next year, we as a student community need to learn from the mistakes of this year, and improve. I understand that the world of politics beyond the university campus is cut-throat and mean, and it can be argued that this year’s election coverage was tame in comparison. However, the students that ran in this year’s AMS election are not career politicians. These students had midterms to write, grades to worry about, and job responsibilities to attend to. On top of juggling their campaigning and schoolwork, I am sure the last thing these candidates wanted was to be teased by a school paper that is supposed to speak for the student body.
Screenshot of “The best and worst AMS candidate websites” article from the ubyssey.ca
This article is not just speaking to the Ubyssey, nor do I want to make it seem like HCUBC is on a mission to soil Ubyssey’s name. I also don’t believe that the writers at the Ubyssey intended to have this impact. However, this is a time when criticism is warranted.
Our community here at UBC has to be held to a higher standard than the dog-eat-dog world beyond campus. As a community, we should be supportive to all the candidates and recognize how incredibly difficult it is to put yourself out there in front of the entire UBC community. If we put students down during election coverage, how can we expect students to want to run in the future? Fortunately, we can change for the better.
When the 2017 campaign season rolls around, we must all pledge to make election season better. Have impassioned debates about who’s platform is better. Help put up posters for your friend who is running for a seat. There are so many ways to take part in the election season without personally attacking one another – and this goes for everyone. Whether you are writing an article or posting on Facebook, remember that we are all students and that we should be treated with respect.