A kerfuffle took place last week in the election campaign for the student seats on the University Council, with confusion over whether candidates were, or were not allowed to use the bollards around campus for publicity purposes.
After student council candidate Margi MacMurdo-Reading mounted posters on the bollards, she was told by OUSA General Manager Darel Hall that she was not allowed to use the bollards. MacMurdo-Reading then complained to University Registrar Jan Flood who was acting as returning officer for the election. Flood confirmed that the bollards, which are owned by the University, were available for use by election candidates and told OUSA as much.
On April 28, a day after MacMurdo-Reading’s complaint, an email was sent to all six candidates by Flood clearing up the status of the bollards: “It has been agreed that each candidate may paste four A4 posters on each bollard, with the proviso that you may not post posters over the posters of any other candidate.”
Critic approached a scarfie on the street to ask how they felt about OUSA’s initial bollard restrictions: “These bollards are the bedrocks of our democracy. If you restrict our right to put up shitty posters imploring people to vote for people no one cares about, you restrict our fundamental freedoms as citizens, and as members of this great and glorious student community. I will not stand idly by while the rights of the few are trampled by the oligarchy that controls bollard access.” Democracy. It’s a beautiful thing.
Battle of the Bollards
