Readers may be surprised to hear that journalists had just four days to put together this special issue of The Cheese Grater because of Union rules around media coverage of the elections.
With just ten days between when the candidates are announced and when the polls close, we must ask ourselves as journalists: is the system conducive to electing the best candidates possible, and do the rules work to encourage or stifle media coverage of these elections?
Time and again, questions of engagement are brought up: How can the Union ensure more people get stuck into campus democracy? We believe we have a simple answer: Extend the campaign period around the Leadership Race.
Compared to other institutions, UCL places much less importance on their student elections. Strand Poly (King’s) down the road has two weeks between the announcement of candidates and the closure of voting and there are no restrictions on when candidates can campaign. Even before announcing who is running in elections, KCLSU encourages prospective leaders to campaign. This encouragement is premised on the idea that candidates must make themselves known to the voting public to improve their optics and chances of winning. Contrastingly, our Union condemns anyone who would attempt to do the same under “early campaigning”, which is forbidden under Union rules.
As a student publication, we have a responsibility to inform the UCL community on the happenings of Union democracy. The Leadership Race is perhaps the most significant moment in the academic year for our student community, and yet, the current regime grants journalists just four days to report on the candidates running if we were to publish before voting opens – something we did anyway.
This is immensely challenging for student journalists who report on campus news in their free time whilst juggling their academic commitments. We plan the majority of our articles long before they publish, but with reporting restrictions around elections, our team was put under immense pressure over the past weekend (ed. – I’ve not slept since Saturday). The current arrangements dictate that we adhere to a rigid publishing schedule to report on all the prospective candidates and their manifestos. This leaves no time to write up any election misconduct that may occur, which is detrimental to the very nature of student democracy.
It is clear that reform is necessary if we want to revitalise and strengthen student democracy at UCL, increasing the time allotted to campaigning is the best way of doing so. In addition to problems around reporting, the existing rules restrict even the Union’s ability to promote the elections. Indeed, how are candidates expected to promote themselves and their priorities in the space of a week? Out of the 50,000 eligible voters at UCL, most will likely have no idea that the elections are even taking place. Indeed, exclusive polling by The Cheese Grater reveals even among respondents, most students don’t intend to vote in every election they are eligible for. It is no wonder that there is so much apathy surrounding Union democracy.
Consider the 6,000 part-time and flexible students at UCL who are restricted in their access to these university experiences as a result of their degree structure. Realistically, how many of these actually engaged with the Union’s imposter Jeremy Bentham to discuss the Leadership Race? The short campaign period almost certainly shuts these students – a significant portion of UCL students – out of being appropriately informed in time for the elections. Can we really call this democratic?
The current election process is swift, but to its detriment. In a real general election campaign, candidates are guaranteed 25 working days, known as “purdah” (the pre-election period), to promote their platforms and engage with voters. This provides candidates sufficient time to promote themselves to the masses, but also gives voters the necessary time to consider which candidate best represents their views. The Leadership Race should aspire to achieve these aims if we want a healthy student democracy. We are not suggesting that 25 days is needed, but we certainly need more than the current structure permits.
We hope the Union will hear these calls and take the Leadership Race more seriously. Having a longer campaign period will not only enable candidates to have the best chances of getting themselves into the public sphere of UCL and be elected, it will also benefit our student journalists. Indeed, we can only pull so many all-nighters for student elections.
