Hey everybody, Feb. 21 are Student Association elections. So mark your calendar, set an alarm on your cell phone, stick a note on your fridge or have it tattooed across your face. Do whatever it takes to remind yourself that Feb. 21 is just a regular old day during a regular old semester.
“What? SA elections are not important?!” you say.
Yes, I say. And I’ll say it over and over until I’m dead or somebody proves me wrong.
Nobody cares. Nobody votes.
Well, obviously some people vote or there would be no elected students. But I would guess that nine and a half out of every 10 students couldn’t possibly care any less about who gets elected attorney general.
What exactly does the SA attorney general do anyway? Or, for that matter, what does the president do? What does the treasurer do? What does any SA official do?
That’s the real problem here. It’s not that students are apathetic about electing people who make important decisions, although apathy does run rampant at MSU. It’s more like SA officials don’t seem to make any important decisions.
This is one of the rare cases where I’ll let the general population off the hook. It’s not our fault for not finding out how SA officials affect our college lives. It’s the fault of the current officials, as well as those running for office, for not informing us of the practical ramifications of who fills those SA spots.
And one would think those practical effects would be the very crux of a candidate’s campaign. But none of the 6-foot plywood signs in front of The Union say anything remotely interesting. Not a single useful fact on any of them.
What do they tell us instead? “I’ve got five years experience doing many other similarly unimportant and unimpressive things that you don’t care about, and I believe I can apply that know-how here at MSU. Besides, look at my creative colorful sign. It’s got a picture of me and everything! Doesn’t my combination of dress shirt, tie and dark-colored blazer just scream ‘class act’?”
Yes, you look very nice in your picture, but what does that have to do with anything? Maybe the signs aren’t the place to look for useful information. Maybe that’s asking too much.
I’ve been going to this school for four years now, and I have yet to hear anybody say, “Things would be different if only I had voted during SA elections.” If you can make me believe somebody might actually say that this year, I’ll go vote for the first time ever, and I’ll encourage anyone who will listen to do the same.