Uninspired by this year’s AMS executive election, students took it upon themselves to say ‘no.’
A no-vote campaign, spearheaded by Allison Mei, Noor Ghunaim, Molly McGill, all ArtSci ’24, and Sophie Sterling, ArtSci ’25, are demanding students earn leadership positions, not expect them.
The group initially bonded over concerns that the now-disqualified team JNN—previously the uncontested AMS executive team—was ill prepared and underqualified. Together they decided to challenge the team by running a no-confidence campaign.
Advocacy for equitydeserving student groups was at the forefront of the no-vote campaign from the beginning, and underpinned the team’s concerns about JNN. They had reason to believe team JNN hadn’t consulted with groups on campus about their needs and wanted team JNN to listen to their peers’ concerns.
“If this means we’re getting a team that’s going to hear our concerns out and pay heed to equity deserving groups, then so be it,” Ghunaim said.
Ex-presidential candidate Jason Kim, Comm ’24, ed the team, and they itted he sounded “worried,” which wasn’t the intention of the no-vote campaign.
“Our intent was never to start a smear campaign, it was more just to be that competitor that they didn’t have from being uncontested,” Mei said in an interview with The Journal.
With JNN out of the picture, the no-vote campaign team is planning their next move. They hope to turn their platform into an information hub for students about the AMS executive election.
Telling students how their student government affects them is a big part of the campaign.
“One thing we did notice is a lot of people didn’t even know that there was an election happening. A lot of people told us they had never voted before in this election,” Sterling said.
Wishing for a more proactive marketing approach by the AMS, the team has taken matters into their own hands in hopes of inspiring students to follow student politics. With Queen’s budget debacle and sociopolitical divides within the student body, Mei said it’s more important than ever to vote.
“We hope our ion can ignite ion within others who feel emboldened to run for these positions. In the same light to tell others who aren’t serious about fixing things on campus, that they can’t just run for positions and get it just because we’re the only ones running,” McGill added.
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