Voting for senate elections closed Wednesday night after what appeared to be a less-than-stellar turnout by the student body. However, while the hurricanes may have led to a shorter time for candidates to campaign, this doesn’t really explain the minimal interest in Student Government shown by students this week.
Each semester we are given the opportunity to vote for people that will be representing us and our needs. The winners of these elections are the people to call if there’s a problem, suggestion or issue you want brought up. Yet very few students, at least from looking at the sparsely populated computers in the Breezeway this week, took the time to stop by the University Center to log in, click and vote. It couldn’t be made much easier, so convenience and ease can’t be used as an excuse.
Ruling out laziness or ignorance, which probably accounts for some, but not all, students, we are forced to turn to the issue of candidates. Could it be that people just aren’t being given good enough candidate choices?
Out of the 22 seats available this election, five had no candidates. Apparently nobody from Pearson Residential College, the apartment area, the senior class or fraternity row felt the need or the desire to represent their interests. In effect, the number of senators that run for reelection is minimal, so whether incumbent senators find the job boring or just wanted to fill a line on their r