The year 2008 marked a year of record breaking campaigning in the Presidential Election; however, when it comes to the UNC Charlotte Student Elections, the campaigning strategies are somewhat lagging. What is the best way to campaign for a student election? I am getting ready to list instructions on how a candidate can utilize materials and strategies to the max. There are 3 main steps to get a student candidate out there and promoting their campaign in a positive way.
Step One: You need to create a Facebook group and promote yourself in a professional, yet interesting way. According to the UNC Charlotte Student Government’s Elections and Publicity Act, Article V Section 1, “Mass Publicity or Paid Advertisements through electronic mail messages or to members of MySpace and Facebook who are designated as ‘non-friends’ is prohibited.” The exception to this is that you are allowed to message all of your current friends on your social networking site. Another exception to this Article on publicity would be if you met someone during your campaign and added them to your social networking site, then you would be allowed to message them.
It is very important to maintain an honest campaign. When convincing others to vote for you, a candidate should remember to maintain their personality so other students will recognize the candidate’s traits. Luckily UNC Charlotte has a great selection of candidates running for student office positions. Remaining honest and truthful is a valuable asset to one’s campaign. Having the support of the student body is extremely valuable to a student’s campaign. With the support of your peers, a campaign will be much more successful.
Step Two: You need to sidewalk chalk your name and your mission on highly populated sidewalks. If you chalk a sidewalk that is highly populated by the people you are aiming at to get votes, you are for the most part, getting your name out there. Sidewalk chalk is fairly cheap and it is a great way to put you out there. Although sidewalk chalk is fairly cheap, a UNC Charlotte student should never use their chalk to destroy buildings, bricks, breezeways, or any other UNCC property. The best place for sidewalk chalk is in its name, on the sidewalk. Any student who does abuse sidewalk chalk may have to forfeit their election process or even have a meeting with the Dean of Students and go before the Student Court.
Step Three: You need to get your physical body out there and meet the people. As students of this University, we have the right to know who is running for our class president, student body president, homecoming representative or whatever other office or position that requires a student’s vote. Also, by getting yourself out there to the Niners of Niner Nation, you are talking about your goals, your dreams, and your ambitions for the University. Chances are if you get out there and express what you want to do to change this University; there will be people out there to support and back you up.
These three steps are vital to a positive campaign experience here at UNC Charlotte. If you ever plan on running for class president, student body president, homecoming representative or any other type of office that requires you to campaign, please be sure to follow the rules. Although a few rules were stated here, all of the rules were not covered. If you would like to know more about UNCC’s policies about campaigning, please go to SGA or go by the SGA office in the Cone Center room 369.
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