Few EUSA elections tend to be scandal-free these days, but one nominee caused a right-old stir. Gefei Mu – putative candidate for VP Education – uploaded a video in which he demeaned trans candidates, raged at progressives and pro-Palestinians, and accused them of being detached from real campus needs – like, apparently, AI. (Nope, me neither.)
In the end, the video made no impact upon Mu’s campaign, because it came to light after the count had ended. His policy slate had already been soundly rejected by the student electorate. 334 votes ensured he came in dead last. In comparison, Kat Amott and Mingjué Xié had scored over 1900 and 1300 respectively. Mu wound up closer to Re-Open Nominations (67) than he did to his fellow candidates.
In the footage, Mu suggests that he’s been starved of support by progressive candidates, whom he claims have “colluded”. But it’s easier to stomach a losing status if you can convince yourself that there are thousands of other potential voters out there who for sure would have supported you if only they’d not been otherwise preoccupied.
It’s also damned convenient.
But let’s be fair to Mu, because his video rant does reveal one of the significant trends of the elections: faced with a myriad of challenges, students are leaning towards activism. Like it or not, the EUSA elections delivered a firm mandate to those campaigning for divestment, for trans rights, and for an end to gender-based violence on campus. That’s what students voted for.
So I hereby dare Gefei Mu to look a survivor of sexual assault on campus in the eye, and tell them that it hasn’t affected their studies. I dare him to tell a trans student that transphobia fails to impact their degree. I dare him to tell those affected by the cost-of-living crisis that empty stomachs are irrelevant to education; that staff layoffs and underpayments have nothing to do with our education; that Palestinian students can simply “block out” that their university hedges its bets, via investments, on the murders of their compatriots.
I doubt he will, of course. But I look forward to the AI-assisted riposte nonetheless.