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Salient: Victoria University of Wellington Students' Newspaper. Volume 31 Number 19 August 6, 1968

Elections

Elections

Sir—Well, the rat race has begun. Elections for positions on Exec. are to be held this week and no doubt we can expect performances not unlike those of the past. The candidates run true to form: a good percentage of exhibitionists who can't afford to miss the publicity, the usual annually blossoming professional students, and only two or three "university-minded" individuals with something genuine to offer.

To them all I plead. Spare us from the usual guff sheet with the better-than-real-life mug-shot and the carefully enumerated platform policies (not more than four if conservative—no less than five if radical), which we all know are forgotten the moment that results are announced. Spare us from the second-hand acting in public, at meetings, and especially at forum; and from the campaign policy of wandering end-lessly around campus, dressed in Sunday best, on the pretence that you're looking for someone—if only you could remember who. And most of all, spare us from the almosl inevitable petty-politics once elected: the earth-shattering statements about world and local affairs, the petty side-swiping through Salient and its staff, and the childish behaviour at Exec. meetings.

Lift the name "university student" out of the mud and spare both the public and the rest of us from the exhibitionism that has over-shadowed the good work done by only a handful in the past. Responsibility must necessarily be engendered by those at the top. I am etc.,

Peter R. Coker.