How I Accidently Ruined the Student Government Elections... for EVERYONE

Chicos,

I apologize that it has been over a week since my last post. I had my first test at the University of Buenos Aires on Monday, so I spent all last weekend locked away studying. The test was on National and International Arbitration. It was an oral exam, where the professors have 4 or 5 students at a time come into the classroom, and they just barrage each of us with open-ended questions about all the material we have discussed throughout the course of the semester. Lemme tell you, it was tough. My Spanish is good in that it is no problem for me to attend a dinner party and chat for 3 or 4 hours. I can converse, make jokes, and even make charming, flirtatious remarks to your girlfriend... for hours.... On the other hand, discussing international arbitration and implementing such a specific and technical vocabulary is a real challenge. Anyway, the test went really well. I passed it, and did well enough that I may even be "exempt" from taking the final exam... depending on how well I do on an in-class project next week.

I have also been a little preoccupied and distracted over the past couple days tying up some final loose ends on an expired relationship. There is much more to it than that, but I'm not ready to tell that story. I usually try to put a light-hearted spin on my stories, and maybe even identify a lesson to be learned from my experiences. These feelings are just too new, though.

Instead, I'll tell another story that is a lot of fun. This is the story of how I accidently ruined the Student Government elections at BU Law last year...

I have talked a little bit about the Student Government Association (SGA) in a recent post. Basically, it is a lot like student council in high school - meaning it is really important to just a few people, and most other people don't really care much about it. To be fair, the SGA actually plays a very important role at BU Law. They manage a lot of money, organize events that everyone enjoys, and work hard to make a real and positive difference for the students. The SGA folks remind everyone of this every year around election time, but it seems that people do not believe them.

Anyway, the story starts on the morning of the elections for the SGA. I was in my first-year Criminal Law class, when one of my buddies, Thadeous Larkin, stood up and asked to make an announcement to the 90 or so people in the class. Thadeous says something like this - "I represent the Committee to Elect Ryan Bullock for SGA President whether he likes it or not. Please show your support by writing in Ryan Bullock's name on the SGA election ballots." Then he sat down.

To put things in perspective, you should know that this had been a "heated" election for the two guys that were actually running for the SGA President position - Ian and Ling. First I'll tell you a little about Ian. A number of people were not very crazy about Ian, because he used to do strange things that people didn't understand. He would wear outlandish clothes to school each day... like a weird tie and vest, or really tight orange pants.... the kind of clothes that made you know that this was a guy who wanted some attention. He had also reportedly told 1 or 2 girls form the incoming first-year class that they should "mention [his] name around the [law] tower, because people know [him]."

But crazy clothes were not the only thing that was important to Ian... Ian also looooved the SGA. Apparently, he was actually really good it ("it" being the SGA). A positive working relationship with the law school's administration, a dedicated work ethic, etc. Recognizing that a lot of potential voters sort of harbored ill-will toward him, it seems that Ian developed a strategy of trying to turn some of his quirks into a joke that would give everyone a chuckle. For example, one of his campaign flyers had a picture of the orange pants on them. Basically, I understood the campaign to be saying, "You may not be crazy about the guy, but he is really good at doing the important shit that other people don't want to do." A solid approach...

Ling was the other guy running for SGA President. Ling was sort of the "challenger" in the SGA elections, because Ian had already served on the SGA as an established representative, or officer, or member, or something like that. Ling's campaign focused mostly on change and criticizing how the SGA had been run. So, like I said, the election had gotten "heated". Lots of flyers all over the school... some poeple getting angry about Ling's criticisms... Ian was passing out lapel pins with his picture on them and hosting coffee hours to discuss his platform... just diiiiiiirty.

So in the middle of all this, Thadeous announced my candidacy at about 10:00 a.m. on election day. At approximately 12:30 p.m. I got my first phone call from an SGA representative. "Um... Ryan... are you really running for SGA President?? Because if you aren't you should tell the people in your class. People are writing in your name on the ballots, and it is sort of skewing the election results." Later that afternoon, Thadeous announced to our class that it was all a joke, so they should probably stop writing in "Ryan Bullock". Of course everyone KNEW it was a joke in the first place. They wrote in my name, because they thought it would be funny. And it WAS funny.

At approximately 4:30 p.m. I received another phone call from a another SGA official. I was out "doing my thing" around town, but she asked if I would pleased come back to the law school and stop by the SGA office. When I got there, the Associate Dean was there along with the Assitant Director of Student Affairs and several officers from the SGA. They were all seated, but there was nowhere for me to sit. I was able to find an empty chair over in a corner of the office, so I pulled it over and sat down to hear what they had to say. The questions basically amounted to - "Did you really ever plan on running for SGA President?" and "Can you please tell us in your own words what [the hell] happened?!?" At one point, someone assured me that I was not in any trouble. My response was something to the affect of "Well, thank you, but of course I am not in any trouble... why would I be in trouble??"

Going before an inquisition like this probably sounds like an uncomfortable experience, but you should keep in mind how much I enjoy being the center of attention. Basically, I received some number of votes, and there was an idea that many of those voters might have otherwise voted for one of the "real" candidates. I explained that the whole thing was pretty obviously a joke. Anyone who voted for me most likely knew they were "throwing away" their vote, and otherwise probably wouldn't have voted at all. In any case, it seems that the damage was done, and there was really nothing that anyone could do to fix it.

In the end, Ling won the SGA election, and he has run the BU Law SGA over the past 2 semesters. Some people were happy, and others were unhappy. Maybe the elections were not actually "ruined" - I mean, things certainly got a bit muddy, but the political process resulted in a winning candidate with the most number of votes.

Before I left for Argentina, a couple buddies and I recorded a mock interview about the whole SGA election fiasco. The video is on YouTube, and I am posting it here. The sound quality during the first half of it is kind of bad, as we were filming outside. We had planned to re-record those scenes, but ran out of time was we were in the middle of final exams. Anyway, enjoy!