Ohio University Graduate Student Senate presidential candidates said they focused less on money and more on in-person campaigning this year.
Tracy Kelly, who will begin her third term as senate president in the fall, said she focused the majority of her campaigning on face-to-face communication as well as emails, Facebook and campaigning through student groups. These techniques did not cost the PROUD party, she said.
John Calhoun, who ran for Graduate Student Senate president on the hOUr party, said he approached his campaigning by going to the Graduate College and speaking to students and professors.
In addition to flyers, Calhoun’s website was another important component of his campaign. Calhoun said he only spent about $100 between printing costs and the domain name for his campaign website.
“My goal was to speak to as many people as possible,” he said.
Both Calhoun and Kelly based their campaigning around in-person meetings with graduate student groups.
“(Graduate senate elections are) a smaller constituency,” Kelly said, who spent about $300 total throughout her campaign but kept her focus on personal meetings.
“It gives the opportunity to let (voters) know us as people and explain in-depth what our platform really means and hope to bring and hear about what they want to see from us.”
John Hummell, chairman of the Graduate Student Senate Board of Elections, said the board did not request campaign fund totals from the parties, adding there was no cap on spending for elections.
The majority of the board’s focus is running fair elections, Hummell said.
“I’m not too concerned about the spending; (it’s) just such a smaller scale (than Student Senate elections),” he said.
Calhoun said he paid for most of his expenses himself. He printed most of his flyers in Alden Library, which charges students’ accounts.
Kelly said some of her campaign funds came from individual contributions, but most money came out of her pocket.
“I didn’t really embark on a large-scale fundraising campaign,” Kelly said.
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