What's Up Weekend Gets Political

The Positive Patriot Pledge:
A Petition for All Candidates for Student Government

In past Student Government elections, many involved and on the sidelines noted the periodic vitriol and personal attacks by campaigns against one another; however, the focus of debate should lie in the many key issues crucial to student life, both academic and extracurricular, which are relevant to the entire student body. This year, as the campaigns prepare for the debate and the entire campaign, it is our hope that they aspire and seek to raise the level of discourse and debate, especially as they hope to represent the interests of the student body before the powers that be.

We, who sign this document, hereby agree to the following,

1. That when campaigning for the votes of the student body there will be an absence of personal attacks against other campaigns, people who work in these campaigns, and the candidates at the apex of these campaigns.

2. Personal attacks include defamation, slander, and libel, material posted online or offline, which do not focus on the issues but rather on the moral characters of others.

3. Attacks on other campaigns that do not involve sound or irrefutable evidence, that do not speak of matters relevant to campus life, or the problems or issues the campus faces, should not be engaged in.

4. As student leaders, all those involved in the Student Government elections should seek to keep excellent and respectable treatment of their peers, before, during, and after the campaign, regardless of who wins or loses.
 
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This is what I'm referring to. I suspect that everyone who is involved with the Student Government elections would at least know of it.
There's always next year, this year things may have gotten carried away.

Tyler,
 
I see your point that you don't need to do an interview to show you can lead, but what this does is show that you cannot take the questions from student talk show hosts like Matt and I. How are you going to be able to take unscripted questions from students or administrators if you get elected? Are you going to ask them to send you questions in advanced so you don’t have to answer them on the spot?

 
Personally, I do not need to talk to you directly, but these interviews were a fair way for you to get out to the students. It was to show them "directly" that you can answer the tough questions on the spot, just like you would be doing if you get elected and just like all of the other candidates did. You and Dev are very strong and very good candidates. Don't get me wrong, both of you are very intelligent and you have some good ideas. I am not questioning your drive; I'm just questioning how you would do in office.
 
To respond to your comment that we’re “spinning” things, we’re not at all; we are giving cold hard facts. Your campaign manager told you not to do the interview from what my sources have told me. If I spun anything, then you should specifically respond to whatever I have spun. I read our email correspondents verbatim on my show, "Your Talk." So I don't know how much there is to spin when you read something verbatim. The voters can choose for themselves what it means to not show up to a couple of unscripted interviews. Especially when you say that you would accept questions from me if I send them to you, not if you come down to my studio on the spot. Your campaign didn't even have the respect to respond to Matt's request which really isn't right. I thank you for at least responding to my emails.
 
Cheers,
 
Alex

I find several flaws in your argument about not wanting to do interviews.  If your 3 values truly are transparency, outreach, and action, it would make sense for you to do as many interviews as possible.  You have nothing to lose with doing interviews.  It gets your message out to the student body - making your campaign more transparent, reaching out to student groups, and taking action.
 
If you were more in tune with what students and student government need, you would realize that students need leaders who will advocate for them in the Mason community.  It just seems that at a time when student government is misunderstood, you as a person hoping to lead the students would want to make students more aware about student government activities.
 
And what I think I found most problematic was your response to requests for interviews (or lack of response).  It seems to me that it's difficult to represent students if you do not respond to emails.  Even a response saying that you didn't want to do an interview would be better.  If you win this election and President Merten tries to contact you to discuss something vital to students' needs, I only hope you would be more willing to respond and cooperate.
 
While I dispute your premise that "In the long history of the world, there has never been any correlation between a leader not choosing to do an interview, and his ability to lead," at the university level, a large part of the role of student body President is to represent students and inform them about your decisions and activities.  What better way than to do an interview? 
 
-Matt Loffman