Originally published April 24, 1998
by Adam Zurn

A mere 13 votes. That's what separated Kevin Van Horn and Shelby Linton in the Student Senate Presidential election on Thursday, April 16. Just imagine, if you and 13 of your friends had voted, the outcome of the election could have been completely changed.

I'm fairly sure that you and your 13 friends didn't vote. Statistically, no one did. At Lyle Dining hall, the polls were open all during lunch. I eat there as does probably an additional 300 or 400 people do during the lunch hours. Yet, as few as 100 people voted at Lyle.

Meanwhile, things weren't much better in the SMC. While I took the 34 seconds it takes to vote, I watched as hordes of apathetic students walked by. The whole voting process isn't real tough. You put a check mark next to the names of the people you want to elect, and the Senator working the booth marks your name off a list. It's that simple.

As I voted, Ed Kovacs was trying to convince another student to vote. Many students did not listen, not even when he called them communists.

Why should I expect more from a campus when we live in a country where fewer than 50 percent of the registered voters voted in the last presidential election? All I can do is shake my head in shame and give out a sad sigh of exasperation. One student after talking about Senate elections told me, "What for? It's just a clique."

Whether it is a clique or not, doesn't really matter. These people have control of your $1 million student activities fee. You remember that fee, don't you? It's the fee that Student Senate voted to raise next semester by $5. Anyone who is part of an organization remembers the pathetic allocation they got last year. If I remember correctly from the complaining earlier in the year a bunch of you only got $42. It's sure hard to run any organization on $42. But hey, I guess not many of you care all that much now, judging from the lack of voter turnout.

These Student Senate officers-president, vice-president, treasurer, recording secretary, and corresponding secretary-help implement student policy. These people have a lot of power with what your college career will be like.

I sat through every single Student Senate meeting except one last year. I've seen firsthand what Senate can do. It can raise your activities fee, give emergency allocations to groups completely out of money, discuss and change academic policy, and even vote itself money (much like the federal government).

I'm not saying that the things the Senate does are wrong. They try to do what they feel is in the best interests of the students. But if they don't know what your interests are because you're too busy hiding in your dorm room and refusing to vote, then they'll vote policy any which way they like. They need your input. That goes for you nontraditional students living off-campus too. You'll be paying more $5 next semester too. It's my guess that not many of you voted either.

The thing is when you don't vote and don't participate, you lose your complaining rights. You didn't care enough to vote, so don't whine later that you don't like what they are doing. This goes for anything from the federal level right on down to our own Student Senate.

If you don't care enough to stay informed and vote in a simple election, then don't sit there on your high horse and bad mouth the winners because you think that the other person could have done a better job. And if you think that you can do a better job, then join. There are empty seats every week at Senate waiting for you to fill them.

To the couple odd thousand of you who didn't vote this year, remember you can't complain about Senate till after the next election-next year! Sorry, that's just the way it is.

To the 500 or so of you who did vote, it's good to see that some of you do care, are involved, and want your voice heard! I'll be looking forward to hearing your complaints next year because you cared enough now to participate