It’s that time of the year again — yes, the University of Lincoln Students’ Union Elections. All the candidates put forward their manifestos on Friday, February 19th, and on Monday it all kicks off.
Not all the positions have been filled though. Out of 13, only eight positions have been claimed, with three roles having only one candidate. But the biggest battle is for the paid positions, President, VP Welfare and Diversity, VP Academic Affairs and VP Activities, each rewarded with around £19,000 per year.
The Linc editors Shane Croucher and Rob Wells have grilled this year’s candidates in a special podcast (listen below), in a half-hour long show. But the most fun part of the elections process is the campaigns the candidates put out.
We had a look at their posters, with some disastrous examples of Photoshop, and we also saw some pretty good ones. So before we bring you the lowdown for each candidate later on this week, we review some of characters this year’s candidates try to impersonate in search for your vote (click on pictures to enlarge).
Chris Charnley: Where have we seen this one before, including the policies? Yes, current President Chris Charnley has done it again — Superman. Maybe it’s time to brush up on those Photoshop skills. Building on his campaign from last year, Charnley hopes students will still think he is Superman. We’ll have to see about that.
Dan Clewley: The new boy on the block — literally — Clewley is fresh from the American exchange. High School Musical hair and American jock jacket, he wants to be on wall with the students. However looking stone-faced on his poster is hardly going to inspire the same hope we’ve seen with Obama.
Lucy Alborough: Black and pink won’t help show Lucy’s colourful personality, yet her foxy looks would make her stand out as the only female presidential candidate. Her poster is definitely catchier than Scott Pack’s, who hasn’t got a Facebook group at all.
Dan Derricott: Clearly “defend and extend” is not something you would normally want to be caught typing into Google, Derricott has made serious attempts to get your vote. He has a strong online presence with his website, though he could have done better colour-correction for his pictures. And by the way Dan, it looks like you misspelled your own name on the poster and on the website (note the two “r”s in his surname).
Ellie Rose Marchant-Williams: Displaying an incredible ability to speak with her mouth closed, Ellie’s poster is catchy, yet easy on the eye. It’s hard to choose one between her and Dan Derricott. Education isn’t as cheap as EasyJet flights for sure though.
Kat Walker: As much as we love Aerosmith “Walk this way, vote this way” does not really work. However, if that is Helvetica we’ll go for it.
Andreas Zacharia: His idea might not be the most original one, but the execution is flawless. Hopefully unlike Aladdin, his idea that any miracle can be done will turn out to be more than fiction.
Katie Blackburn: We’re glad that Katie has discovered WordArt. She can also copy and paste herself three times. It’d be great to see more smiley faces like hers.
Emily Gough: Oh my Gough, what is that? Although she has done a lot of good work at the university, she should really not be associating herself with The Weakest Link. She too can copy and paste herself, several times.
Kayleigh Taylor: “Just a small town girl living in a lonely world,” said the band Journey, and we too “don’t stop believing” in Kayleigh. We just wonder where the drop in and go welfare service will take us. Oh, and maybe you should have taken it easier on the eye with those colours.
Jonathan Holmes: A breath of fresh air, Jonathan went for the clean look, much more appropriate for what the SU Elections want to be. He’s the only other candidate to have a website, so although the poster might be short of information, it can be found online. Let’s just hope there aren’t many Lincoln students that need “liberating”.
Joe Hicks: Going for a sophisticated look, the campaign poster could turn out to be slightly bland. We would have liked to see something more creative and eye-catching, fit for a campaign officer. Yet, his opponent, Declan Ackroyd, didn’t have any poster on his Facebook group.
Phil Krstic: A poster that reflects the fun nature of Phil’s prospective job, he will have time to grow his hair back before the new RAG. Though if he is willing to shave off his hair, he should also get rid of the unsightly chest hair in that picture (Photoshop or not).
— Reporting by Jonathan Cresswell, Charlotte Reid and Daniel Ionescu
I like the music.
“Joe Hicks: Going for a sophisticated look, the campaign poster could turn out to be slightly bland. We would have liked to see something more creative and eye-catching, fit for a campaign officer. Yet, his opponent, Declan Ackroyd, didn’t have any poster of his Facebook group.”
Should that not be on his Facebook group? Seems as if you want to rip the people wanting to change the uni with petty comments we can all play that game.
Handbags at dawn!
Just for reference, the image shown under my ‘campaign poster’ is not in fact my campaigns poster; just my facebook group image.
I will be providing a digital copy of my poster to Jonathan Cresswell, which I hope will not appear as being ‘slightly bland’.
So you think University campaigning is a joke? Remind me why the University funds your ‘newspaper’ please?
These posters may not be the work of Van Gogh or Michelangelo but they’re hardly the main thing we’re looking for really. I don’t care if it just had a plain bit of paper with their name on it – it’s policies we’re looking for.
That’s why at “The Linc” you can do as many podcasts and God knows what as you like, but the bottom line remains that you are a student newspaper. No more, no less. So let’s take a look at your design work shall we? You spend how long doing podcasts? Who listens? You have a wikipedia page. Who reads it? You cover topics of minimal importance to the University, let alone people who don’t go here. So why put them in Starbucks and other pretentious areas of the City?
Your newspaper is nothing shy of an absolute farce. Listen to some negative comments – publish this comment. Go on. Gain even just a tiny amount of respect for admitting that you think your newspaper is the most important thing in the world. Bottom line? It’s free. And I’d still want change.
Oooo looks like this could get juicy!
Stephen,
Thank you for your insightful comment.
I appreciate you care more for the policies rather than the posters, yet I believe you have failed to notice there were hardly any policies on the posters.
The University of Lincoln funds our printed material and not our online output, and we are not obliged to support the university or the SU altogether.
We have a dedicated audience whom we serve, and there are alternative news outlets you can follow if you are unhappy with our coverage.
Stephen Rudd,
Firstly, you say the the posters aren’t important. Let’s take a look at it on a national scale. At the last European election, the Torys spent £3.1 million just on encouraging people to vote (mainly through advertising, as our precious SU are), and Labour £1.3m. Why would they spend so much money on this if it didn’t matter? Guess what Rudd, it does (Tories won over Labour by 4%).
Who listens to our podcasts and Wikipedia page? Well, you must be one of them… you love it that much, you even updated our Wikipedia page. Rob says thanks for the award by the way.
Lastly, we may be *just * another student media outlet. Though we have been recognised by both the BBC and Guardian and the university itself, more than anything else on the campus. What have you been doing with your time at the university? Not getting known by the looks of it.
Regards,
Elizabeth Fish (another third year Journalist and Culture Editor of The Linc)
Stephen who?
Sounds like you’re bitter after last year’s sports editor fired you for not being good enough.
Oh and Shane I do have a poster, I just need to pick it up, and it’s not very eye catching doesn’t even have a picture of me, just sort of puts across my main points.
Have to agree with Steve on some points. Not going to get personal but it is bang out of order to have a dig at people for their posters. As if the candidates have £3.1 million to spend on a poster campaign.
People put a lot of effort into making these posters and to have The Linc mocking them is just so out of line it’s untrue.
I personally think that anyone who has a dig at this article needs to lighten up. In fact, its refreshing to have a laid back approach with a sense of humour.
@Tom Salmon – ‘People put a lot of effort into making these posters ‘. Come again, are we looking at the same page?
Well done chaps, you’ve really outdone yourselves in the controversy this time. I genuinely didn’t know what to make of this when I read it (and I’m still confused about the “students who need liberating” comment, care to explain please?)
I think this has been an interesting topic. As a journalist, I know the value of satire and how effective it is at pointing out flaws of those in power, but I don’t pick up the newspaper to read that a satirist has pointed out some exposed chest hair as a campaign flaw for example.
Are you going to be satirising our manifestos too? Or have you picked on the posters purely because you believe the flaws are too obvious. If you don’t, it just seems a bit strange that you’ve done this. You’ve done the posters, why not continue? Or has this been an attempt to make a dig at all candidates?
Finally, do any of the authors of this page have experience in graphic design or posters? I’m sure you have graphic design people for your paper yet you havent used them to examine the posters?
Jonathan,
This is just the first leg of our coverage of the SU Elections. More to come over the next few days.
Also, our editorial team, including myself, design The Linc’s pages.
Hope this answers your questions.
Jonathan, I wasn’t involved in writing this piece, but I did read it.
It’s a light-hearted warm-up to our SU election coverage. It’s hardly intended as a serious review of policy, and anyone who has taken it as that needs to step back. This is not the be-all and end-all. You didn’t turn up to be interviewed for our podcast, I’ve no doubt you have a good reason, but did you listen to it? If you have then I’m sure you’ll realise we plan on seriously scrutinising your manifestos.
I think you’re confused. Do you really think election coverage has to be relentlessly serious? We all need a bit of relief, writers and readers alike.
As for the students who need liberating reference, I took it as questioning the strange title of the role you’re going for. I mean, “liberation” officer? This isn’t South Africa in the grip of apartheid, it’s the University of Lincoln.
Hello Tom,
I think you missed the point of my example, it wasn’t highlighting the money directly, more the effort that goes into the marketing of their campaigns. I can totally understand it’s hard when you are a skint student. But what does it take to open up a picture editor and get a bit more creative? Ok, I think some of these comments are harsh, as some of the posters above are good efforts for those who may not be creative. Though if you are going to make a poster, don’t just go crazy in Paint or Word. If i was really struggling, I’d get a friend who is good at making designs do it, or ask someone on my Facebook campaign page to get involved and help me. I could even pay them a little something for their help.
Shane,
I did let Rob know that I was working. Unfortunately when you were interviewing the candidates I was putting socks out at Primark. Believe me, I would have liked to have been there. I did listen to the coverage this morning and it was good. Some nice scrutiny there.
As for the title of the position I’m running for, I didn’t decide it. Personally I like it, it sounds much better than “minority officer” which is the only other title I can come up with now.
That’s fine, I understand. Work often gets in the way!
I just wanted to give you some context from where I view the article.
Good stuff.
I look forward to the rest of your coverage!
I thought this was a fantastic read from start to finish. Highly entertaining.
…and Stephen will you SHUT UP. The world, journalistic or not, does not depend on your opinion on EVERYTHING that you DISAGREE with, so maybe when you disagree, keep it to yourself once in a while. Theres more to life than arguing, unless something has got you upset or frustrated but I’d much rather not know.
When it seems every wall of the Main Admin Building all of a sudden becomes covered with posters and bed sheets, it gets kinda annoying. Especially when posters which you have stamped by the SU are taken down to make way…
Elections may be a serious subject but that’s not to say a light-hearted look at it is ‘bang out of order’…part of going up for a position is surely being scrutinised and criticised is it not?