Ugly chalk scribbling is always the worst thing about SU elections

They’re so obnoxious


Unless you’ve been hibernating in your room and don’t use Facebook, you’ve likely noticed there’s the SU elections happening. Depending who you ask, they’re either a chance to help make a difference to the way that the SU is run, or a waste of time that just serves to pad out candidates CVs. Whether you’re an idealist or a cynic, there is one aspect of the elections that is incredibly obnoxious: the horrific chalk drawing on campus.

Expect more sights like this

As soon as the campaigning starts, candidates scrawl their names in chalk all over the quad. They don’t tell you anything about the candidates, or what they would do (or at least, attempt to do) for the Students’ Union – they just state their name and a predictable “vote for me!” tagline.

These scribblings are an ugly addition to an already ugly campus. It wouldn’t be so bad if they were artful or clever in some way, rather than looking like the “artists” did them on the way back from a particularly heavy night out. Our campus can hardly be considered pretty, with architecture that would fit into a low budget adaption of 1984, and were a few people with a creative streak to choose to decorate it, it could look a lot nicer.

Will this really make people vote for you?

You might say that it’s no big deal, that it’s only something that we have to put up with for a week, or even that you like the way it makes campus looks. To that last point, you’re either helping someone run or you’re a liar. Imagine walking up to the Arts Centre to see a show and being greeted with that eye-sore. It’s not wonder the uni is removing them in preparation for an Open Day tomorrow.

It wouldn’t be so bad if candidates actually bothered to take the time to wash them off post election, but this rarely if ever actually happens. The uni has moved the remove them, but covered areas such as by Hugh Owen or under those weird concrete steps have stayed there for months in previous years. Plus they’ll no doubt be re-written during the week.

Awful

So, if you’re running in the elections do everyone a favour. Clean up your fucking mess yourself. Or even better, don’t make it in the first place.