Gus Mayopolous’s reversal is a welcome change in the UC discussions. The campaign’s popularity and success, seemingly lacking in consequences when he and Sam were planning their immediate resignations, have found a voice.
Sam and Gus’ U.C. election was far from a joke. Rather, the duo’s ability to pull out a plurality of the vote suggests that, more than any team, Sam and Gus are best served to lead the U.C. towards relevance.
The election’s statistics suggest no overwhelmingly new voters participating in this election to get in on the “joke.” In fact, the turnout declined from last year, and on top of that, Gong-Goffard and Nwokike-Kim brought out fewer votes combined than Raghuveer-Zhu alone brought out last year. The electorate looks no different than any other year – meaning that half of the college still finds the U.C. too irrelevant to even be worth a short vote – but even those who fulfill their civic duty and participate in U.C. elections are tired of the status quo.
A quick gander at the comments among the relevant Crimson article demonstrates the ill-will many members of the student body have for students on the U.C.. Many suggest that the “establishment” U.C. candidates are disconnected with actual student needs, others blame U.C. candidates’ egos as their true motivation, and still some reject the U.C. itself as a powerless institution that gives the illusion of student government while Harvard administration plows along.
The Clark-Mayopolous ticket found victory because it demonstrated none of these inhibiting characteristics. Sam and Gus realized what students actually want: personability.
Sam and Gus’ candidacy was clearly not aimed at improving their resumes. Their willingness to resign proves this. Their campaign was more clearly about tomato basil soup ravioli than their own benefit. And that’s something students actually want. #tombasrav4lyfe trends more with the student body than community conversations on gender-neutral pronouns and thick toilet paper matters more than … well, apparently anything.
A look at the serious campaigns’ websites (Gong-Goffard, Nwokike-Kim’s has been removed) provides more photography of the candidates than substantive ideas that will likely be acted upon. Just as the Latin and Latin American Studies concentration remains a distant promise, students aptly attributed the same doubts to Gong-Goffard and Nwokike-Kim.
Conjecture does not a solid argument make, but the history of the U.C. supports this theory. Raghuveer-Zhu’s failure to make the U.C. relevant despite their slogan, “Demand Relevance,” is quite telling. But a broken record can’t fix itself. To fix the U.C., we must not look to the U.C.: we must look out of it.
The election, in many ways, was a vote of no confidence in the existing UC administration. Did that unfairly discount this year’s candidates? No more so than people discounted McCain in 2008 for Bush’s faults: a logical move considering the connections in the political philosophy. The “serious” tickets were of the same party as Raghuveer-Zhu, in a roughly one-party system with elections only ceremonial in nature. Sam and Gus have proven themselves an effective third party — which is to say, a second party. The inclusion of meaningful democracy in UC elections is a welcome start to a long-needed change.
Should Sam reverse his decision to resign the presidency, the student body has demonstrated a vote of confidence in his ability to manage the UC better. The campaign may have been a joke, but the issue it best touched upon, relevancy, is more central to the UC’s problems than divestment, gender-neutral housing, or weekend shuttles. And if this grand experiment proves dissatisfying to constituents, the ballot box will still be there next year.
The dark horse candidates marched to victory. Clark-Mayopolous was a bit of humor along the way – but only because in our hearts, we know they’re right. Assuming Gus is elevated to the Presidency upon inauguration, he will confidently be able to rule with a new mandate. And perhaps, given his lack of familiarity with the UC’s modus operandi, he just may be able to run it effectively, too.