Student Union elections never generate the attention that we ought to be devoting to them, and this year looks like it will be even worse than usual. This year, there is only one full slate of candidates and only one position on that slate will be contested.

Naturally, this largely unopposed election will draw even less attention than previous elections have. But, even though we have no real practical options about whom to vote for, we still need to pay attention. We still need to vote.

Learning the positions and goals of the upcoming Student Union representatives and voting based on that information is the only way to hold them accountable in the future. This group of future Student Union executives will not have the same opportunity to gauge student concerns over various issues the way the previous groups have done. During contested elections, candidates get a sense of what is appealing to students about their platform and what is appealing about their opponents’ platforms. The only way to give our Student Union a sense of how we feel about their platforms is to vote and have that vote be a decision.

If you vote for the candidates, make sure you actually want to vote for them. If you would have preferred a different agenda, vote with a write-in. Even though your write-in candidate probably will not actually win the election, the write-in is still meaningful, and having students actually make a choice between voting and writing-in will make people’s votes for the slate meaningful. The number of people who write-in versus the number who vote will be one of the only ways candidates can get feedback from the student body at large; it will be the only way they know whether they should be charging ahead with their policies or spending their time talking to students and pursuing different goals.

Even though a lot of times it seems like the decisions the Student Union makes don’t matter much to us as individuals, the truth is that they do. Last year’s Student Union overhauled the way it distributes a significant amount of its funds to student groups. Over the past few years, Student Union has been behind the push toward a lot of practical changes, including creating wireless Internet access and the ability to use campus cards in vending and laundry machines. Student Union is responsible for relaying students’ concerns to the administration and has been in charge of communicating (and also determining whether to communicate) with the administration over issues students have with its policies. In the past, Student Union has considered concerns ranging from the disapproval of the new technology package and asking for a sexual assault prevention coordinator to student protest over the firing of lecturer Jerome Bauer and desire for mixed gender housing options.

The issues Student Union handles affect our lives on a daily basis and affect how the University will be shaped. As students, we have an obligation to make sure that the people in charge of representing the student body actually represent us. If we don’t pay attention, we don’t have a voice. We need to make sure that our voice is really guiding the way that our University is develops. The way to do this is to actually vote for or against the visions of the candidates in the elections. After all, we can’t hold a student government responsible for communicating the desires of the student body if it has no idea whether or not it is communicating those desires.

Jill is a junior in Arts & Sciences and a Forum editor. She can be reached via e-mail at [email protected].

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