As a former Epinal Comment Editor and current Label News Editor, I’m compelled to respond to Mark Osmond and am challenging his R.O.N campaign.
Do I have a problem with Mark? Not in the slightest! On Monday morning, I will sit in the same lecture theatre as him and we’ll listen to our lecturer rant and rave about the Russian Security state.
His arguments and the overall R.O.N campaign have caused me to awaken from dissertation fuelled slumber. I would like to break down his arguments as he presents in his RON manifesto.
- As someone who has worked with LSU Media Bryn’s ambitions to run for media have not intimated other candidates. In fact, his “critical journalism” platform which he ran on for the previous election actively encourages criticism and people to challenge his decisions. An example of this can be found within Label, via a splendid article by Katie Wilson about our lack of internet presence and how our website was taking an age to come online. LSU Media needs consistency and stability, not some dreamer attempting to make miracles happen within one year. Hence why voting R.O.N is bad vote. I feel that your criticism regarding innovation is pretty weak. Bryn plans to restructure the very heart of LSU Media’s committee system, reinvent the WOW AU magazine and create an unprecedented file server between the Union and the University. If that’s not innovative then you’re expecting the impossible.
- The interims and deputies you make reference to are not bumbling idiots. The interims that occupy roles below the current VP’s are very talented people. Matt Peat and Dan Leedham for an example know the workings of LSU Media inside out. If you watched the bubble debates, you can whole heartedly agree with me that they have stepped into Bryn’s shoes well. Label has been publishing non- stop and LCR has been providing great campus radio. The lack of a VP has not inhibited LSU Media at all. Bryn is a respectable guy and if he had lost, then I’m pretty sure he would return to work the next day willing to give it his all. Not simply blow the media budget on some Wolf of Wall Street party for himself
- Nepotism? Again, I plead with you, do you have any evidence for this?! Izzy has done a wonderful job if you ask me. I was lucky to speak at the No More Page 3 debate where she and the fantastic Loughborough Women’s Network did an amazing job in organising a debate. One could possibly posit the fact that since she has stayed on for two years, that she was able to harness the full resources of the union and form great relationships with the union staff and student body in order to host a fantastic debate. I’m pretty sure if Bryn was elected for another year, LSU Media would evolve and flourish. Bryn would create a platform in which dreamers and innovators could expand upon.
I applaud the fact that you’re engaging in the VP Media debate and the Exec Elections. But I feel that your R.O.N campaign is preventing talented people, who know their departments well, from standing again.
This year, LSU Media has evolved into a source of unprecedented media coverage and a font of critical journalism. In a time when LSU Media needs consistency and stability, we should not subject him to a rash vote and elect some buzzword heavy dreamer or even worse, leave the role empty creating a climate of indecision undoing all of Bryn’s hard work.
