The Syracuse University Student Association held its elections last November and the voting turnout is a clear indicator that the student body is disinterested in their own student government. The convenience of online elections should have resulted in a high voter turnout. Yet with only slightly more than one-tenth (11.4 percent or 1,873 students) of eligible voters casting a ballot over the three-day election period, there are some serious issues within SA and the greater Syracuse student body.

Neither SA nor the student body is solely to blame for the embarrassing attempt at emulating a democracy. It will take an increased effort by both parties to form the citizen-government relationship that should exist on a college campus.

Louisa Chan, former chair of the SA Board of Elections and Membership, faced the difficult task last October of organizing the effort to publicize the vote and recruit candidates. She continually faced challenges from an ‘apathetic’ student body that did not take interest in the elections while making up for a lack of SA manpower.

‘I did my personal best,’ Chan said. ‘I took the typical avenues.’

These avenues included posting fliers prescribing how to vote and sending out mass e-mails reminding students of the upcoming election. Despite Chan’s personal best effort, the voting response did not correlate to the work she put into publicizing the campaign.

The problem would appear to be in the campaigning process. SA President Wayne Horton found the greatest difficulty in his inability to campaign in Schine Student Center.

Even if SA could get the student body to follow the simple process and cast a ballot, there is still another flaw in these elections that has not been taken into account, the lack of issue awareness by voters. Besides a debate, which drew a crowd of 30, and a Daily Orange profile of each candidate the majority of voters knew little about the person they were electing to oversee a budget of approximately $1.7 million. In an attempt to keep the elections as fair as possible, candidates were limited to a minimal budget and were banned from campaigning in a variety of locations. When it came down to clicking on which candidate students wanted to lead, it seemed to be a popularity contest.

Horton himself does not believe it was a popularity contest but did concede that ‘people vote for the person they identify with and feel comfortable with.’

Before the concern can become focused on issue awareness, students must start participating in the election process. When asked why students couldn’t comply with the simple process to vote online, Chan said, ‘Students don’t go to vote as naturally as they check their e-mail.’ This is a pathetic excuse for students attending a world-class university who desire to be the future leaders of the world. Horton said he believes students only pay attention to SA when it comes time to allocate money and then their organization becomes a priority.

The issue is deeper than the SA not being able to get students to vote, according to Marlene Goldenberg, the current chair of the SA BEM. There are not enough students seeking candidacy.

‘No one wants to put in the time,’ said Horton, who himself puts in a great deal of time holding office hours every day.

There is hope for a more fluent democratic practice in future elections. Goldenberg has prepared with her committee revisions to existing election codes that will eventually be voted upon by the Assembly. The reworked election codes will revise the ban on campaigning in Schine, address campaigning on Facebook, initiate a serious public relations campaign and allow students studying abroad to cast a vote. Horton also said he would be behind any proposal to allow campus media to mediate and sponsor a debate between candidates.

Syracuse University and the SA need the student body to respond to these new efforts to make elections an important aspect of campus life. Students should take a proactive role by showing up to SA meetings, held Monday nights at 7 in Maxwell Auditorium, and at least witness the opportunities available to make a difference on this campus. It is not enough for candidates to debate in front of thirty people. We need to hold a multimedia debate broadcast over the Orange Television Network, taking advantage of the skilled mass communicators attending the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. At the very least, next November when the campaign season reopens and the position of president is in question, read a bio of the candidates or watch a news segment to find out what the students stand for. But most importantly use your voice in the democratic process and VOTE.