Jordan Bancroft-Smithe on running for senate and picking your president

Editor's note: The following is a letter from Jordan Bancroft-Smithe, the current student body president.

Election season started on Monday at 8 a.m., and things are off to a sprinting start. If you want to run for a senate seat in your own college, you should contact Corey Cooling at coolingc@uni.edu. Corey is the election commissioner and he can set you up with all the paperwork you need to turn in ASAP in order to get on the ballot.

Senate is a wonderful opportunity to get involved and give back to the UNI family. As an advocate for your constituents, you do everything from helping student organizations get resources to put on their events to getting the chance to weigh in on important university matters such as tuition.

Given that I have been the president for 10 months now, I thought I’d share a bit about what this position entails and what sort of qualities you should be looking for in the candidates over the next two and a half weeks.

Being the student body president is a wonderful opportunity that I wish I could do again, and I probably would have if my parents hadn’t threatened to end my life for suggesting staying a sixth year. It gives you the opportunity to make a difference in the lives of your fellow students. You are an advocate, you are a negotiator and you are a leader. You are there to help direct students to solutions or to give them access to opportunities they wouldn’t normally have.

The technical knowledge of the job isn’t as vital as one might think. Anyone who is reasonably bright can figure out how to do the requirements of the job, and there are always people who are willing to help and guide you through the processes of university committees, etc. Previous knowledge, though, can give a candidate an edge. Having less to learn in the beginning can allow their administration to hit the ground running and to be more productive in the long run. The same goes for having previous or working relationships with faculty leadership as well as administrators. But these things can all be learned, and it is the things that can’t be learned which you should be looking for.

Your next president and vice president need to be individuals with vision. They need to be able to grasp complex problems and be able to find creative solutions to those problems. They need to be patient and measured. Nothing can ruin any chance of getting something accomplished faster than burning bridges due to hasty or poorly thought-out responses, and it is not just the candidates who are going to have to measure themselves, but they are also going to have to deal with other people who want immediate resolutions to their complaints.

The candidates are going to have to be ardent fact-finders and researchers. Many times, hours of research goes into what we do as we try to find out why something was done and how can it be done better. While we are the advocate of the students, sometimes it is necessary to just explain to the students why something happened rather than raise a fuss about it.

The next president and vice president should be calm and confident. Being able to strongly voice a well-reasoned opinion in a meeting without raising your voice or lapsing in logic is one of the most powerful and respected traits when dealing with individuals both in the university and outside of the university.

The most important trait the candidates should have is the ability to foster trust. NISG can only serve the student to the fullest of its abilities if people trust in the abilities of the students involved. This is not just the faculty, staff or administrators, but also the student body. Only by being frank and transparent can the candidates earn the trust of those they may one day be representing.

So, during this election season, ask the candidates tough questions. Make them work for your vote, because only through a rigorous campaign process can the brightest candidates shine. During some campaign appearances, in front of BMLU for example (if you were there, you know exactly what I am talking about), I grew more as a person than I had during entire spans of my lifetime.

Thomas Paine once said, “These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in the crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it NOW, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.”

While I’ll admit that NISG elections are not nearly as important as the Revolutionary War, the basic premise is still there. The true character of the person comes out during adversity, and only by supplying that adversity will you know who truly has in their hearts what it takes to be an excellent president and vice president.