Glory Days -- SUUSA Elections

When I look back at my time at SUU, one of the most memorable, trying, and wonderful experiences I had was running for SUUSA President. I am not certain where I found the courage to run for office, but I still look back fondly at this experience.

One evening I was talking with one of my good friends, Justin McEwen. He had been toying with the idea of running for Academic Vice President. I encouraged him as I thought he would do an incredible job. Throughout the course of the conversation I decided that running for President was something I could do. I had previously served as an officer for PBL, I had been Student Body Controller, and I had been around campus enough that I figured enough people would know me. Justin and I then spent hours trying to figure out who else to run with us. We needed an additional Vice President and all 12 Senators. We formulated a plan and went to work.

Talking people into running for office was probably the most challenging part of the entire campaign. As we added members to the party, we started using their minds to help us fill out the rest of the ticket. After several days we finally had a full ticket and started holding meetings to come up with a party name, logo, platform, and other issues that we felt were important or that needed to be addressed. The library was currently under construction and there was a lot going on at SUU so we settled on "Students at Work" as our party name and our signs would look like a yellow construction logo. Then the real work began. We painted signs, created brochures, talked to our fellow students to see what issues were important to them, we recruited supporters to help us. We had to get donations, we talked to businesses to see what kind of deals we could get on our campaign materials and we worked to get everything done. The preparation work took over our nights, weekends and sometimes even took precedence over our classes.

Students at Work Party

Finally, the first day of the campaign arrived, we hoped we were ready. The official rules said we could not start campaigning until 8:00 a.m. About 8:15 I had my first fine. Two of my room mates wore our shirt to school that first day, they had 8:00 a.m. classes and wore the shirts on campus. This was considered campaigning early and I had to start an appeal with the Elections Committee. This incident was the only negative aspect of the entire campaign for me. I enjoyed setting up a table in front of the Student Center and meeting more of my fellow students. Meeting new people has always been one of my favorite past-times. Each evening we would gather together and go door-to-door through all of the apartment complexes. It was our goal to talk with all SUU Students.

Although I was not with at the time, one of my favorite stories comes from this door-to-door activity. One of the groups of our Senate Candidates was knocking on doors, I believe it was at College Way, or maybe Stadium Way. They knocked on the door and stepped inside the apartment to talk with their fellow students and as they looked around they noticed one of our large "Students At Work" signs was being used as a table in the apartment. One of the senate candidates asked if that was our sign? The students sheepishly replied that it was. She then told them they could keep the sign as long as they promised to vote for us. (I have always assumed they did.)

After a week of hard campaigning, it was finally time for the Primary Elections. All of the parties met in the Student Center living room to wait for results. When the results came back, I missed making the general elections by two votes. I have never been upset about not making it to the general elections, because putting together the campaign and meeting so many wonderful people was a worthwhile experience. My fellow party members and supporters are some of my favorite people from my SUU days. Spending so much time together, working for that common goal was definitely a bonding experience. One of those experiences that makes you stronger as you go through it, individually and as a team. I know it is something I have never regretted.

View 2011 SUUSA Election results: http://www.suunews.com/news/2011/mar/09/suusa-elections-now-open/

"Glory Days" is a recurring post by Clinton Painter, a 1996 alumnus with a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting.