When we look around the country, the most effective student governments that we see are the ones that run carefully planned campaigns. Many student governments plan events or pass resolutions about important issues, but running a campaign requires going further. A campaign is a long-term project where a student government focuses their energy and effort on a single issue. It takes planning and commitment, and allows a student government to win bigger victories than they could achieve in any other way. We’ve written this spring about some amazing campaigns, including ASUW’s campaign to win funding for higher education, UTK SGA’s campaign to protect student fees, and ASBSU’s campaign to stop concealed weapons from being allowed on campus.

Why Run a Campaign?

Campaigns focus your members’ time and energy. There are countless issues that your student government can choose to address. You have to prioritize a few issues and plan carefully if you expect to make a difference. By running campaigns, you can concentrate your efforts, focus on your goals, and win definitive results. Campaigns build power for students. Students don’t have the money to influence elections or buy influence in the capitol. Instead, your student government’s power lies in your ability to mobilize students to act. Campaigns provide a vehicle to engage students around an issue and make an impact. Campaigns make it easier to be strategic. Campaigns provide a structure to think through your organization’s goals and the best way to achieve them.

Choosing the Right Campaign and Issue

In order to decide which issue(s) to work on, you should create a set of criteria that will guide your choice. Below is a list of common criteria used by student governments (keep in mind that an issue does not have to meet every criteria to be a good option). Use these questions to guide your discussion when choosing a campaign. Ask yourself:

Would winning this campaign result in a concrete victory that improves students’ lives? The campaign should have a tangible solution that you will be working to accomplish. After running a campaign, students should be able to understand how their life is better because of it.

Is the campaign consistent with your organization’s values and vision? The issue should fall within the mission and goals of your student government or state student association.

Can you win the campaign? Is the issue too big for your organization? Do you have the necessary resources? Have you won on an issue like this before? You should choose campaigns that are ambitious in scope, but you need to have a realistic chance of winning.

Are you addressing a problem that is widely felt by students? The issue must affect a lot of people if you want to mobilize the student body behind your campaign.

Is the problem deeply felt by students? Student must care deeply about the issue in order to be compelled to work on it.

Is the campaign easy to understand? Can the campaign be explained in a paragraph? Can it be reduced to a sound-bite? If your solution is too obscure or too complicated, it will be hard to build support for it.

Does your campaign have a clear target? The target is the decision-maker or group of decision-makers who controls the outcome of your campaign – for example, it might be the legislature, an elected official, or a college administrator. Do you know who your target is?

Does your campaign have a clear time frame? Will you be able to win in a semester? In a year?

Will this campaign recruit new students to get involved? The issue needs to be able to attract new student government members and new volunteers.

Will your campaign build leadership? A good campaign should develop the next generation of leaders for your organization. Will this issue inspire talented students to step up and take on leadership roles?

Will this campaign build your student government? A good campaign should help build your organization and make you more powerful – by recruiting new volunteers and members, so that your organization gets bigger; by strengthening your relationships with decision-makers and other organizations; by building visibility for the organization, so that you are better known on campus; by winning a concrete victory so that students will respect your organization more; etc.