UWSA vs UMSU for the Pump It Up Concert: Think of it like partisan politics

As you probably know, the TD Pump It Up campaign has university students of different campuses compete for the opportunity to get K-OS, GIRL TALK and THE STILLS play a concert for the students by students going to the TD Pump It Up website , logging on through your Facebook account and voting for your school. However, it may be the case that Winnipeg altogether fails if we can’t cooperate.

UMSU (University of Manitoba Students’ Union) and the UWSA (University of Winnipeg Students’ Association) are competing like republicans and democrats in partisan politics. I have what I believe to be the strongest logical case, which is that UWSA and UMSU team up and everyone votes for U of W, we split the loot, and all of Winnipeg wins.

I’ll begin with a couple of common misconceptions

1. The concert will not necessary be on any campus. Read the contest rules.

“Then, all eligible Entrants from the Winning School in each Region will be entered into one (1) of three (3) random draws to win a VIP Concert package for four (4) to a concert near each of the Winning Schools (“Concert”).”

2. The winning school is declared based on the PERCENTAGE of students that vote on the website.

“In each Region, the School that receives the highest percentage of votes, based on their student enrollment will be declared the Winning School. In the event that two (2) or more schools each have an identical highest percentage of votes rating, the School with the most actual votes will be declared the Winning School.”

What does this mean? The concert will be near the school. In other words, the concert will be in Winnipeg. So disregard any notions of a school’s inability to host an event. That’s irrelevant. It also means the smaller the population of the school, the bigger the edge the school has. This means U of W has a significant edge over U of M and I propose the following: UMSU, speak with the UWSA and make an agreement that if the concert comes to Winnipeg, UofW and UofM will split the loot (i.e. VIP passes, etc.) and then advocate everyone to vote for UofW and that way it will take less votes to win.

By the two schools competing irrationally we run the risk of the concert going somewhere else: namely Victoria BC, as U of Victoria is currently ranked #1. It could even go to Brandon. Yup… U Brandon (currently at #2). That would be possible for Winnipeggers but require a road trip. It would generally be inconvenient and embarrassing.

There, of course, is the possibility that either U of W or U of M win of their own. If so, Ra-Ra for the winning school. But that’s a lot of hard work, not terribly likely, and certainly not the most clever way to do this. If we can get beyond this bizarre campus-edition of partisan politics and have everyone voting U of W, we can nearly ensure that K-OS, GIRL TALK and THE STILLS come to Winnipeg. Isn’t that ultimately in everyone’s best interest?