On Tuesday, I had the honor of listening to Denny Chimes play “Celebrating Achievement” for me and four of my UA faculty colleagues in recognition of the major grants and awards our research had garnered. I felt proud to be a part of the UA family.

Ironically, several blocks away at the District 4 polling station at Calvary Baptist Church where I volunteered for almost five hours, a very different story unfolded. In the hotly-contested race for the district’s representative on the school board, incumbent Kelly Horwitz was trying to stave off a challenge from former SGA president Cason Kirby. Big money from local business interests and outside PACs flooded in to support challengers in this race at a level never seen before in this city (Kirby $19,000, Horwitz none).

What I saw was a study in stark contrasts. Dozens of parents and their children, along with independent-minded UA students, helped Kelly. But Kirby didn’t need this. He had money and the Machine. I watched stretch-SUVs paid for by the PACs disgorging greek society members at the polling station. I asked if they knew of any specific Kirby policy proposals to improve city schools (trick question: He had none). They didn’t. They didn’t want to know of Kelly’s accomplishments. Achievement didn’t matter, excellence didn’t matter, only the Machine mattered.

Kirby barely won, but due to serious allegations of voter fraud, the results are not yet final. I have three children in city schools. I believe that students are fully entitled to vote, but that their votes should be thoughtful, informed, independent and lawfully cast, and that people who are voting on matters that affect the lives of small children should treat that vote as a grave responsibility, not a joke or an occasion for a party.

It’s time, once and for all, for us to recognize that the Machine exists, that it presents real problems, and that we need to have a public conversation about how this university is going to conduct itself and who is going to run it.

Steven Bunker is an associate professor in the department of history.