With every election season, there are three groups of people. You have the candidates that try to sell themselves with their predictable platform, breakfast starters and shirts to add to everyone’s wardrobe; their supporters, then you have the rest of the campus, the people that could care less.
I do a lot of observing during campaign week. I Tweet watch, lurking for the latest gossip on what candidate got disqualified or who is being “messy.” Campaign week on FAMU’s campus is like a soap opera and I tune in every day. While I can definitely put myself in the “could care less” category, there is one thing that annoys me.
Many people don’t vote because they believe the candidates just want the title.
Here’s my response: DUH! Anyone can travel and recruit prospective students. Anyone can create a scholarship if they have the means to do so. Anyone can do community service. But everyone can’t be Mr. or Miss. FAMU.
Why is it a crime to want to be recognized? Many of the candidates are well known long before elections anyway. If they weren’t already active on campus, their flyers would say “Vote For Me… Just Because.”
According to an editorial written by Samantha Savory in The Famuan on March 4, 2009, “the royal court is part of FAMU’s public relations entity.” The article was written to educate students on the role of the royal court and how it’s not all glitter and gold.
So regardless of a candidate’s reason for running, if he is elected, he is still required to put in work.
I’m tired of people acting like they do everything out of the kindness of their hearts
I’ll take myself for example. I write for the paper because I enjoy writing. But I also can’t graduate without a certain amount of clips and the title “Deputy Lifestyles Editor” makes a nice bullet point on my resume. Does that make it any less of a service to the University? No.
I don’t care what any of the candidates reasons are for running. Just get the job done. As long as the winners do what is expected of them, then it’s fine with me.
Besides, if it wasn’t about a title, there wouldn’t be one.