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| Qualifications listed by all of the 2012-13 ASUSU Candidates |
As part 3 of my blogging of ASUSU Elections, I am looking at the qualifications listed for ASUSU Candidates. I decided to look for common themes in qualifications. I examined every 'qualification' a candidate listed and categorized them.
Most candidates listed at least one experience, most mentioned many, with different committees. I believe this is the best way to learn about the operations of the University. In general, committee work enables students to network, think about issues, and work for a solution. However, many times committees are the most superficial ways to be involved. I've sat on enough boards to know titles aren't always correlated with accomplishment. The second most common category was work experience and internships. Between the two, most candidates' qualifications are a list of their titles.
Titles are important-- titles have and continue to motivate me, they provide me a feeling of accomplishment, and the provide me a way to easily explain my role in the organization. However, I think we should look critically at the titles and ensure the feelings of accomplishment are met with actual accomplishment.
If you're interested in running for ASUSU Office in the future, I would encourage you to meet up with the officer and help with their council. It will give you a better understanding of the position.
--"Ambassador / A-Team" includes college ambassadors and "other" ambassadors.
--Greek is artificially low and may look as though Greeks don't make up much of the candidate pool. I think they make up about 20%. However, I'm counting every listed qualification. Most Greeks listed it only once and so it was included only once. However, many candidates listed multiple council positions (each council was counted individually). Every bullet on the site was categorized once. If there was a 'list' of clubs they were involved in, it was counted as one. I wasn't using a perfect method.
--This blog and the contents herein are not affiliated with ASUSU or ASUSU Elections.
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The candidate with the fewest friends
had 446, the most had 2208. |
I'm interested to see how social media plays a role in this year's ASUSU Elections. I think it has been important for several years, but I think students are more organized now than ever online. This is the first year we've had an "Incoming Class of 2011" Facebook group. The group has about 1000 members. Twitter has exploded this year. I see new Aggies on Twitter all the time.
Beyond actual campaigning, student leaders are utilizing social media more now than ever. I use it frequently to discuss issues facing students. I'll post updates about meetings I'm attending to garner feedback about an idea. This year's programming board bought Facebook ads to advertise for The Howl.
- 5 candidates have a goal to better use social media.
Note--
I couldn't find two candidates on Facebook. Only Executive Council candidates were included. Data pulled on 2/21/2012. This blog and the statements herein are not affiliated with ASUSU or ASUSU Elections.
I'm looking for a huge, foolish project. My freshman year, I dove into the food pantry. I spent all of my time working out the details of the project and perfecting it. I loved it. Now I'm working in student government. I spend most of my day in the TSC. I love working with all of the Officers. I love figuring out problems and connecting people to information. I have really exciting plans for the rest of this year and next year.
But then what? I graduate. I can't conceptualize what life will look like after this. I'm in college mode. My 12 month plan is looking good. My 5 year plan? It's really nebulous. This arouses a lot of personal insecurities. I'm a planner. I have goals, priorities, and plans. I'm looking for my next food pantry: a place where I can work with information and people and where I can make a difference in the community. I'm looking for opportunities to grow.
Utah State University students will be voting for student government next week, and the platforms for candidates are out. Elections week is typically horrible. It's full of coupons on fliers, over stressed students, and a lot of Facebook spam. However, it's the process we have to elect students to office. It's not perfect, but it gets the job done.
A friend of mine was saying many of the candidates platforms were 'sky in the high' and weren't realistic. To some extent I can agree. However it got me thinking about what themes would show up when you looked at all of the candidate's platforms. Using the information from the site, I decided to do a little analysis. I'm doing this independently. This blog and the statements herein are not affiliated with ASUSU or ASUSU Elections.
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Word cloud of candidate platforms, qualifications, and goals.
Some words removed (i.e. "student" and "qualifications"). |
Immediately we see common themes within student government. Words like opportunities, the "voice" of students, experience, programs, concerns, and service are throughout. These aren't really a surprise. These are inherent with the role of student government.
I'm surprised "community" was mentioned frequently, 15 times. I'm surprised "fund" or "budget" weren't mentioned more (10 and 5 times respectively). Engineering was high because there are a lot of candidates. "Leadership" is mentioned only 6 times in candidates goals or platforms (excluding qualifications).
The 15 candidates running for Executive Council mentioned "ASUSU" 20 times. The 22 candidates running for Senate mentioned "ASUSU" just 5 times. Senator Candidates discussed "opportunities" more than those running for Executive Council.
This surface-level analysis demonstrates espoused values of student leaders. By evaluating common words in platforms, goals, and qualifications, we can see what 'themes' are discussed frequently.
All of these are "god terms" (words or phrases that have a positive meaning). That's not a surprise; a negative campaign is not very appealing. I would be curious to see when and where ASUSU Candidates are critical and see what kind of language they use.
The candidates might have unrealistic goals or ideas, but I'm more concerned about the work ethic and values of the candidate than the actual goals. Goals are important, but they can also change. Setting ambitious goals is admirable. That doesn't mean they should be unrealistic-- that's silly-- but I think vision and opportunity is more important in student government than realism.
Somehow, I've ended up on www.Fiverr.com, where people will sell a service or product for $5. I thought it was kind of cheesy, "I'll write a 500 word blog post on any topic for $5" and "I'll photoshop your picture to make you look buff for $5."
But then I got hooked. Some of them are actually really cool. The actual product or service isn't necessarily difficult. I mean, you're paying $5 for it, so I don't expect anything grand. I bought $25 worth of random novelties on this website. I can't show them all (because of upcoming events where they will be debuted), but here's one of my favorites.
Immediately after I bought all of this crap I was like, "What did I just do!?" I don't think spending the $5 was so much of a bad thing. But what am I going to do with it?
I subscribe to Leadership Freak daily emails which usually go ignored or unread. When I saw the title of this one, I knew I had to read it. I couldn't not read it. Why? Because I am my biggest critic. I think we all are. We all judge ourselves way more than we would ever judge others. He describes how I feel perfectly, "There's always room for improvement. Translation, I fell short." As odd and unrelated as this may sound, I think the need to be perfect kept me in the closet for a long time. I don't like to disappoint people I care about.
What's the remedy?
- Better is good when it’s found in the aggressive pursuit of excellence. Perfection stands aloof mocking your progress, laugh him off.
- Be constructive more than critical. Ask what can be done more than what was done.
- Adopt systems. Systems stabilize, guide, track, and evaluate. Systemize coaching, presenting, meetings, problem solving, or leadership development. John Bernard’s new book, “Business at the Speed of Now” is helping me think more clearly about systems.
- Give and accept today’s best. You did what you could.
- Embrace the imperfect present while reaching for excellence. If you can’t define the problem progress is meaningless.
- Don’t make it personal. The “not liking my performance” moments I listed above indicate I make it personal. Improvement is about strategies, techniques, and methods.
- Bonus: Keep learning.
