Connected Carleton, a slate in the 2019 Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) executive elections, launched an environmentally-friendly campaign this year.
Mehdi Bouchentouf, the slate’s candidate for vice-president (finance), said while posters have been put up, no campaign flyers or bookmarks are being used.
According to Bouchentouf, the slate made the decision because he noticed the large amount of waste around campus when he ran as an independent candidate last year.
“I saw that my campus wasn’t as clean as it should have been,” he said. “I saw flyers everywhere, I saw papers, I saw things being torn down. I didn’t see students actually picking them up afterwards.
“I saw staff coming in late at night to clean up, having to take on an unnecessary burden,” he added. “I told myself going forward, I would not allow that to happen in any campaign that I was in.”
As part of the slate’s digital campaign, Bouchentouf said he tried airdropping digital campaign posters in the University Centre (UC) on Jan. 23 but stopped soon afterwards because of complaints of privacy.
“At that point, it was kind of about innovating the electoral process,” he said. “For me, the airdropping was a way to engage people who are more likely to utilize their phones because I think when people are handed flyers, they throw them away.
Bouchentouf said he apologized to students after complaints as some students got notifications numerous times.
“Unfortunately, my understanding of how the airdropping worked was actually different,” he said. “I thought if it was sent once and it was declined, any notification after would not come because it’s already been declined.”
Bouchentouf said he realized there’s different ways of engaging the student community through digital ways and human interaction. According to him, Instagram in particular has been “really good” for engaging students.
“A lot of people engage with imagery rather than texts but also a mix of both,” he said. “I think that’s how the campaign actually started to gain even more momentum because I started to get tagged in Instagram posts from people that I had just recently met.”
David Oladejo, current CUSA president, said he expects campaigns to be more digital in the future but sees the value in pamphlets and bookmarks.
“It’s unfortunate there’s so much waste after elections and pamphlets everywhere,” he said. “But I also recognize the importance of in-person interactions with students and the thought behind giving someone a pamphlet or bookmark, is that they have something to take with them going forward.”
According to Ben Vantour, a second-year commerce student, digital campaigning is “more efficient.”
“I don’t really take out too many pamphlets too often,” he said. “I see a lot of people take them out and throw them out sometimes.”
Vantour also said emails are a good way to engage with students as well as giving incentives for in-person interactions.
Bouchentouf said he’d like to see a limit on the amount of campaign material printing in the future and less waste in general.
“If you’re valuing a green platform, you need to value your green campaigning,” he said. “The way you campaign is the way you govern.”
—With files from Temur Durrani and Meral Jamal
Photo by Temur Durrani
