An election is underway on campus for the TCSA Executive. Hardly a game changer.

Except for the garish and corny slogans etched on the university stonework, and the increased photo-ops for the incumbents, nothing has occurred to really draw attention to it.

Alaine Spiwak, the current president, is neither greatly incompetent, nor shamelessly corrupt, but Trent students should not, I repeat not, re-elect her to her position.

Why, you may ask, is she unfit to be returned to the presidency when she is neither incompetent nor corrupt?

Quite simply because she is a mediocre president, whose tenure can be described as neither good nor bad but simply “meh.”

This time around she uses the same plastic words and phrases that got her elected last time, which real politicians use to a sickening degree everyday.

Words like “fairness” and “democracy” are not followed by how she means to continue the presence of those principles, or return them if they’ve been lost.

Slogans like “support affordable post-secondary education” and “justice for international students” and “environmental and sustainable practices” are fronts that aren’t backed up by even the slightest hint of how she will achieve them.

Her platform is plastic and lacks substance; it’s smiles, empty promises and photo ops.

Once again she’s promised to “improve food services,” this time it’s a priority, apparently.

But during her tenure, food services have gotten worse; the quality of food has decreased while the prices have increased and our president hasn’t uttered a single of criticism to Chartwells, or made any obvious effort to improve the situation.

Why should we give her another chance with that, when she’s done nothing on that front? Nor has she allowed for a debate on Trent’s membership in the corrupt, bureaucratic, trough feeders of the Canadian Federation of Students to which we pay an exponential amount each year.

She won’t even allow for the debate to happen, let alone look at the alternatives: either the more affordable Canadian Alliance of Student Associations or the other options that exist for us!

Spiwak is content to rake in her presidential salary of $24,000 a year, with paid leave and holidays, and maintain the status quo.

Continue placating people with photo-ops and talking about change but not acting on it.

It’s the least amount of work; after all, things are not terrible. But nor are they as great as she would have us believe.

Maintaining the status quo with Spiwak is an option. But it’s not a very good one –not if you want to make student politics work for students and not just student politicians.

That being said #NOTAlaineAgain.