As an alumnus, I always enjoy the opportunity to return to my Alma Mater. Last Tuesday, after speaking to a group of freshmen business students, I took a stroll around campus to see how students were faring this semester. 
   I was delighted to see  Subway has returned to campus and Lee Hall is finally undergoing a thorough renovation.
However, MSU held elections last Tuesday for the 2012 Homecoming Court, and as usual the candidates’ proxies were out in force.   Quite unaware of what was awaiting me, I found a bench on the Drill Field and took in the sunset. 
Within moments I was beset by a bevy of young ladies, all vying for my attention.  I was momentarily flattered, but each clearly wanted something:  my vote. 
Despite my no longer attending MSU and being therefore ineligible to vote, these women were quite insistent. Many were employed, by their own admission, by the candidates’ sororitorial backers and had strict quotas to fulfill. These roving bands proceeded to accost me for the rest of the evening, becoming ever-more disengaged or desperate depending on their nominee’s projected showing at the polls. 
By closing time, I was reduced to yelling at any woman who came within earshot,   “I’m no student. Come not near me!”
I should have expected this, having seen my share of flirting, badgering, Facebook spamming and baked-goods bribery in years past. 
Fortunately, my five years of business education at MSU have conditioned me to hold out longer, in order to reap the benefits of desperate, eleventh hour vote-seekers.
Throughout the afternoon, I was offered a variety of stickers, and around 5:30 p.m., I was even offered a whole box of Krispy Kreme donuts (only a little past date).
In the age of the secret ballot, why do campus elections resemble presidential elections of the 1800s in which wagon-loads of voters were often carted to the polls by unscrupulous solicitors?
How did we come to this?
Student Association records indicate that 6,045 students voted in the election. 
While this number accounts for less than one-third of the student body, it is still higher than the 4,248 students who voted in the SA Executive Election last spring.
Also, despite running in a wider homecoming field, both this year’s queen and Miss MSU received more overall votes (2,709 and 2,538 votes, respectively) than did our current SA president or vice president during their spring election (2,253 and 2,315 votes, respectively). 
How is it that homecoming court elections garner higher turnout than SA Executive elections?  There are several possible explanations for the surge in poll-goers. 
Perhaps the increased homecoming turnout is the result of a deeper candidate field, with each candidate’s partisans delving deeper into their friends and contacts lists in order to meet quotas.
Perhaps potential voters with friends on the ballot are more emotionally invested in Homecoming elections.  Either way, as an alumnus I am bothered by the student body’s apparent disinterest in campus affairs.
I don’t mean to suggest the Homecoming Court is an unworthy event. The Miss MSU Pageant awards scholarship money and has ties to the Miss Mississippi and Miss America programs. 
The other homecoming court members represent the university at various functions and maybe even promote some platform or agenda.
But beyond that, I could never attach any personal importance to the occasion and neither, I’m sure, could the average student.  
However, it’s all in good fun, and I begrudge no one their traditions. The homecoming court clearly has its place – the voter turnout supports this – but the voter numbers themselves are troubling.
I understand the appeal of homecoming.  It’s glitzy, scholarship money is involved and the Miss MSU Pageant even has a swimwear competition. Given the wider field of nominees, chances are also good that you know someone in the running. 
But could not a student’s vote be better spent in the SA Executive Election, selecting representatives who help form university policy, sponsor campus events and determine organizational funding? Take that into consideration come next spring, and don’t forget to exercise your right to vote in the presidential election on Nov. 6.