by Cheyenne Schoen |
ASUP president and vice presidential candidates Brandon Rivera and Tsikata Apenyo were shocked when they woke up Saturday morning to find that the five hours they had spent the day prior posting campaign fliers around campus had been in vain, when they saw their fliers torn off their stakes, ripped up and thrown into bushes.
Of the 72 fliers Apenyo and Rivera placed, Apenyo said about 25 had been taken down. All fliers were approved by Student Activities on March 16.
“It looked like someone was trying to hide them,” Rivera said of the fliers they found in the bushes.
ASUP President and fellow VP candidate Anthony Ng said he saw Rivera and Apenyo putting up fliers Friday at around 9 p.m., a few hours after they said they had started.
“I just think it is a little disrespectful that students are damaging campaign fliers because these two people are trying to run for president and VP to better the school, and students need to participate in that process instead of vandalizing them,” Ng said.
Ng said he thought the high number of fliers Apenyo and Rivera put up could have driven people to take them down.
“I think (the vandalizing) happened last year, too, with some people’s signs who put too many up,” Ng said. “I think it might be too overwhelming and maybe an invasion of privacy, or affect aesthetics of the school if there are just too many of them. I think that’s the main thing. Respecting students, even though you’re campaigning.”
Ng said his campaign posted nine fliers around campus.
Since Saturday’s incident, the two have kept a close eye on their fliers, which they said has been stressful.
“Every couple of hours we have to walk around and make sure there’s nothing taken down,” Rivera said. “It’s been stressful.”
Apenyo said he was shocked that this happened at UP.
“I didn’t think that at UP, which I think of as a super friendly place, that would be possible,” Apenyo said. “What’s weird is that our things have been damaged but things from the other campaigns haven’t.”
The incident sparked support on the social media app Yik Yak, which the two said has surprised them.
“It’s been great to get all the support,” Rivera said. “We’ve been taken aback by it. We have to just keep pushing. We can’t let this kind of thing stop us. Tomorrow’s the election and we’re just going to keep pushing, telling people what our platform is and keeping people informed.”
Cheyenne is a reporter at The Beacon. She can be reached at schoen17@up.edu.
