Wednesday, March 28, 2018 // The Statement
4B
Wednesday, March 28, 2018 // The Statement 
5B

The Machine: Inside the CSG race

by Tanya Madhani, Contributor

I 
 

remember the outcome of each 
Central 
Student 
Government 

election during my time on the 
University of Michigan cam-

pus clearly. My freshman year, the elec-
tion between Make Michigan’s Cooper 
Charlton and Stephen Halperin, and 
The Team’s Will Royster and Matt Fidel 
ended in a victory for Make Michigan by a 
four-vote margin. Junior year, I saw LSA 
senior Anushka Sarkar and Public Policy 
senior Nadine Jawad’s campaign and 
achievements dismissed by the opposing 
party’s candidates.

Seeing candidates of color lose and 

their platforms dismissed in campus 
elections is not a frequent event, but their 
occurrences, however sparse and minute, 
were frustrating to me nonetheless.

As part of my last semester on campus, 

during yet another CSG election, I found 
myself writing this article with the sim-
ple motivation to learn more about what 
CSG campaigns are actually like, but 
instead I found that frustrations I had 
as a voter were just as apparent among 
those who were in the assembly.

In the interviews I conducted through-

out the month, many raised concerns 
about the tokenization of individuals and 
the shadow of Greek life that loomed over 
platforms from various parties.
“C

SG is treacherous,” Public 
Policy junior Allie Brown, 
senior policy adviser for 

eMpower, said.

To Brown, the perception of CSG as an 

organization that “does nothing,” is fair.

“For a lot of people, it’s more about 

how it’ll look on their resume than what 
they’re doing on campus,” she said.

During the fall semester of 2017, CSG 

proposed a resolution to pay themselves 
in a move that many panned as self-serv-
ing. Earlier this semester, CSG published 
an affordability guide which students 
criticized heavily as out of touch for rec-
ommending students cut back on laundry 
and housekeeping services in order to 
save money. Following the controversy, 
CSG took the guide down, but many stu-
dents hadn’t forgotten about it by the 
time the election for the 2018-2019 school 
year came around.

Unlike Brown, several of the candi-

dates in the CSG race were previously a 
part of the assembly and were part of the 
incumbent president and vice presidents’ 
campaign during winter 2017. 

When I spoke with candidates in 

MomentUM, MVision, eMpower and 
True Blue, each of them acknowledged 
the criticism CSG receives for its sup-
posed ineffectiveness.

“I welcome the criticism when it comes 

to CSG,” LSA junior Arathi Sabada, True 
Blue’s presidential candidate, said, prior 
to the election. “For me, it’s a lot less 
about the position and the title, and more 
about my impact. Being a good leader is 
the ability to empathize with other stu-
dents.”

Sabada’s ties to CSG began in her fresh-

man year when she applied to the orga-
nization on a whim, eventually holding a 
position as chief operating officer during 

University alum David Schafer’s term in 
the 2016-2017 school year.

“CSG can be a taxing organization,” 

she said. “While there was change that 
was happening when I was in it, I was not 
satisfied.”

One of her initiatives was the annual 

demographics report, Sabada said. She 
spearheaded the report after being dis-
satisfied by the representation in the 
organization.
“A

nushka and Nadine are the 
first women of color to ever 
hold the office together and 

nothing can take that away from them,” 
Public Policy junior Daniel Greene, now 
president-elect from MVision, said about 
the candidates that he formerly worked 
for during their campaign.

When I met Greene at Espresso Royale’s 

State Street location, he sat hunched over 
his laptop typing away at another email 
or text or Facebook message from some-
one in his campaign. After I brought up 
how busy he must be, his eyes went wide, 
and he nodded slowly.

“Let me show you my calendar,” he 

said, twisting his laptop toward me. All 
that was visible was a large purple square 
on a bright, white background. “This is 
my schedule for the week.”

When asked if he’s eaten, he gestured 

towards a small plate in front of him, 
which was clean, save two small pastry 
crumbs.

When asked what his impression of CSG 

this past year was, Greene hesitated and 
offered an implicit rebuke of his predeces-
sors: “I’m sick and tired of large promises.”

“Campus is really hurting,” Greene 

said, referencing racist flyers found dur-
ing the winter and fall 2017 semesters. 
“What I want to do is follow up on those 
promises. That’s why I’m running a cam-
paign that’s based on direct experience 
and that’s why I’m willing to get less 
sleep.”

There is virtually no difference in the 

basic stances of each party’s platforms, 
Greene said. What makes his party stand 
out is first-hand, personal knowledge 
of hot-button campaign issues and the 
unique experiences they bring to each 
aspect of their platform.

“No one on our campaign is here to 

check off any boxes,” he said. “We’ve 
picked the people that are the best for 
the job.” 

MVision was the only viable party with 

an all-white executive ticket with both 
being a part of Greek life. Their inclusion 
of Black students in high-level positions 
seemed to stand in contrast with their 

ticket and Greek life roots. Some within 
CSG, as well as voters, said this seemed 
like a case of racial tokenization.

Public Policy junior Gabby McFarland 

was part of MVision in its first few days, 
but resigned two weeks before election 
day for what she said were a variety of 
different reasons, including some of the 
party’s promotional material.

“There’s just a lot of dynamics with-

in the campaign that frustrated me,” 
McFarland said.

This pressure would have been fine 

had she only felt it from individuals out-
side campaign, McFarland said. Howev-
er, that was not the case, as she did not 
feel supported within MVision as well.

“There’s a lot of pressure on me, being 

behind two white candidates, which 
would have been fine,” she said. “When 
I was receiving a lot of negativity on the 
outside of the campaign, and then inter-
nally, I began to lose faith in what we 
were campaigning on. It started to feel 
very disingenuous.” 

McFarland, who is part of the Sexual 

Assault Prevention and Awareness Cen-
ter, said she was interested in crafting 
MVision’s sexual assault platform and 
gravitated toward writing those policies, 
but lost faith in the team after facing dis-
agreements with others from the party. 
In particular, the Next Step Program 
that MVision crafted in order to address 
sexual assaults puts immense pressure 
on survivors when it should be doing the 
opposite, she said.

According to MVision’s website, the 

Next Step Program aims to address the 
needs of sexual assault survivors to be 
heard, supported and protected at the 
student organization, SAPAC and admin-
istrative level. This program was heavily 
criticised by an op-ed in The Daily, in par-
ticular for its failure to hold Greek life on 
campus accountable for its role in sexual 
assault and the culture surrounding it.

McFarland tried to combat the policy, 

she said, but MVision went forward and 
incorporated it into their larger platform.

“I’ve been lectured on, ‘Oh, you can’t 

run away from politics,’ but I think when 
politics compromises your core values, 
I think it’s definitely OK to take a step 
back,” she said. “The Next Step Program, 
when they were designing that, I really 
don’t agree with a lot of the policy in 
there … Like I said, it just began to feel 
very disingenuous.”

Another thing that contributed to that 

feeling was MVision’s use of Black celeb-
rities in their social media promotions. 
In off-the-record conversations, mul-

tiple members of opposing campaigns 
expressed the same discomfort.

One photo in particular that made her 

uncomfortable was an image of former 
President Barack Obama and first lady 
Michelle Obama with a caption that stat-
ed, “Only 3 more days until election day … 
Vote MVision.” The image was posted on 
Snapchat by LSA junior Michael Heyward, 
MVision’s co-campaign manager and a 
Black man.

“I think it’s hard because Michael 

and Caitlin ... I’m completely rooting for 
them, but I think it’s hard for them to put 
it in perspective,” McFarland said, refer-
ring to Heyward and LSA junior Caitlin 
Christian, a Black woman and MVision’s 
co-campaign manager. “We’re not the can-
didates. The candidates that are associated 
with these pictures of Black people are two 
white people. I think it’s hard to make that 
connection as a campaign manager.”

Christian 
said 
that 
accusations 
of 

tokenizing against their party were hurtful.

“I definitely think tokenizing has been 

used for our campaign in a lot of situa-
tions,” she said. “People say Michael and 
I are tokens, but that’s really disrespect-
ful because that’s kind of like saying, 
‘You don’t deserve the position you’re in’ 
and that we’re just here because of our 
identities. I don’t think that’s fair.”

As for the use of Black celebrities in 

their promotional material, Christian 
said they were simply using figures in 
pop culture as a fun way to engage with 
students on campus by using individuals 
from media they are interested in.

“(They’re) people that we look up to 

and I’m sure a lot of other people do,” she 
said. “I don’t think it’s fair to say that it’s 
tokenizing celebrities ... Saying that it’s 
because they are Black, again just like 
tokenizing people on our team, it takes 
away from the fact that it’s just an (indi-
vidual) that we look up to.”

Using Black celebrities like Nicki 

Minaj and Kanye West on posters is one 
last attempt to grab voters that MVision 
does not have, according to McFarland, 
from demographics they were unable to 
reach through their messaging.

“I think Izzy and Daniel are very 

aware that they don’t have this empa-
thetic, genuine connection with (vot-
ers of color),” McFarland said. “Putting 
out that propaganda with Black people’s 
faces on them is a last attempt at getting 
those votes.”

EMpower and MomentUM, McFar-

land said, garnered more support from 
students of color and were doing more 
outreach toward those students. She 
said Public Health junior Lloyd Lyons, 
eMpower’s candidate for president, had 
face-to-face meetings with students in 
Good Time Charley’s to speak with them 
about a campus incident where a student 
published a racially charged image on 
Snapchat.

“MomentUM and eMpower are mak-

ing genuine attempts to connect with 
their voters,” McFarland said.

AJ Ashman, an engineering junior and 

MomentUM’s 
presidential 
candidate, 

said both his and his running mate’s 
identities as Black men contribute to 
their campaign naturally being viewed as 
more diverse.

“Most politicians don’t look like Char-

lie and I,” he said. “Most student govern-
ment leaders, I should say, I don’t look 
like Charlie and I.”
T

he night before the Michigan 
Daily CSG debate, Lyons of 
eMpower shuffled through a 

PowerPoint detailing his party’s mis-
sion and campaign. As the meeting 
wrapped up and Lyons opened the room 
for questions, one of his representative 
candidates — who was in Greek life — 
informed the room that his fraternity’s 
president had told his fraternity broth-
ers to “vote for MVision since it’s the 
Greek life party.”

“What are we supposed to say to that?” 

he asked.

“Tell them we’re not just a party for 

Greek life, we’re a party for everyone on 
campus,” Lyons said.

Though members of opposing cam-

paigns casually referred to MVision as 
a “Greek life party,” and the fact that its 
presidential and vice-presidential candi-
dates were both involved in Greek life, 
MVision denied this label.

“I think that we want to be more than 

a Greek life party,” Public Policy senior 
Josh Martin, MVision’s senior policy 
advisor, said. “We obviously want to rep-
resent members of Greek life. They are a 
big part of our campus … They have seri-
ous needs. There’s a lot of problems in 
Greek life that need to be addressed.”

Martin said MVision was a party for 

more than just Greek life on campus and 
that the team was working to push issues 
that will affect all students. Christian 
added to this sentiment.

“I just want to add … A lot of members 

on our core team aren’t involved in Greek 
life,” Christian said.

Christian and Martin sat down togeth-

er for an interview on March 22, the last 
day polls were open. The two of them 
had spent the morning on the Diag, along 
with representatives from MomentUM, 
passing out fliers and encourage passers-
by to vote in the CSG elections.

“That dog though cannot win,” Chris-

tian said as she left the interview. “It’s so 
embarrassing ... We, not just us but also 
the other parties, have been outside cam-
paigning and trying our best to reach out 
to students on campus.”

“That dog,” was Reggie the Campus 

Corgi, a Pembroke Welsh corgi that fre-
quents campus and has over 5,000 friends 
and followers on his Facebook page. The 
week before voting began, students had 
organized a grassroots write-in cam-
paign for their beloved Reggie as both 
a joke and protest vote, catching fire on 
social media and drawing press attention 
from the likes of the Detroit Free Press 
and Buzzfeed.

The Monday before voting began, 

Michael Sola, Reggie’s owner and an Ann 
Arbor resident, jokingly endorsed the 
write-in campaign from Reggie’s Face-
book page. However, after voting had 
been open for 15 hours, students per-
suaded him that his dog was disrupting 
the other candidates and he urged Reg-
gie’s followers to vote for “humans” on 
Facebook.

“As soon as they made me aware of that, 

I realized the thing to do would be to go 
ahead and end the campaign,” Sola said.
O

n election night, Reggie came 
in fourth in the election with 
1,403 votes, while Greene and 

MVision won first place with a plural-
ity of votes, double the number of votes 
earned by runner-up MomentUM.

Nonetheless, a dog had beaten four par-

ties, half of which were led by students 
of color. On March 24, the day results 
from the election were released, Sarkar 
tweeted her disappointment at students 
on campus and those from the press that 
gave Reggie’s campaign coverage.

Business 
sophomore 
Michelle 
Fan, 

aMplify’s director of communications, 
bemused that while it is important to prop-
erly advertise and market candidates, she 
chalks up the election results to students’ 
lack of knowledge about how to vote.

“It’s all focused on names in the cam-

paign,” she said. “I think part of it is, 
also on North Campus, it’s like also very 
largely ignored.”

Fan said students who have most of 

their classes on North Campus may feel 
that CSG policies do not affect and apply 
to them.

“They don’t really care about elections 

necessarily, or because they’ve personal-
ly been ignored, so it’s not like a big point 
for them to take out the effort to do it,” 
she said.

The tendency to vote for candidates 

like Reggie also stems from a mistrust of 

CSG, she and several others who worked 
on campaigns have said.

“I know that there are definitely some 

aspects of CSG that are very problemat-
ic, of course, but I think when it comes 
down to it, there are people who are run-
ning for a reason, and they’re running to 
make a change with CSG, so it’s really 
important to vote for them,” she said. 
“But people just think, like, ‘Oh, noth-
ing’s going to happen.’”

This is a trend that is evident on the 

national scale, Fan said.

“In the Asian-American community, voter 

turnout is really low in the United States,” 
she said. “If you’re ignored constantly, or you 
don’t feel like anything’s going to change, 
you have no motivation to vote.”

True Blue came in third in the CSG 

elections, narrowly beating the dog by 63 
votes. After multiple attempts to reach 
Sabada for a comment on her experience 
during elections, I did not get a response.

As for the accusations of tokenizing 

against MVision, the tendency to use 
individuals for their race and ethnicity as 
a means to reach particular voter bases is 
nothing new, Ashman said.

“They’re not viewed as contribut-

ing members of the assembly ... They’re 
viewed as ‘Oh you’re going to bring me a 
population of votes so that’s why we need 
to engage, that’s why I need to talk to 
you,” Ashman said.

He doesn’t know if there were any mer-

its to the allegations against MVision’s 
marketing and can’t speak to their validi-
ty, but hopes that Greene and Baer rectify 
the situation during their time in office.

“I think we have serious questions 

about how a party that stands accused 
of doing this thing can seriously lead 
and change the culture of CSG that has 
existed for years now that tokenizes stu-
dents of color when they stand accused 
of doing what sounds like essentially the 
same thing,” Ashman said.

Emma Richter/Daily 

Engineering junior A.J. Ashman and LSA junior Charlie Binghman, then-CSG candidates for the MomentUM 
party, speak at the CSG debate at the Michigan Daily on Thursday. March 15.

Emma Richter/Daily 

LSA sophomore Marianne Drysdale and Business junior Arathi Sabada, then-CSG candidates for the True Blue 
party, speak at the CSG debate at the Michigan Daily on Thursday. March 15.

