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EDITORIAL BOARD

John Harp                Ed De La Garza 
Michelle Norton     Jim Parsons 
 

SA: Student Apathy?

It's times like this that make one want to jump on the "Let's abolish the Students' Association" bandwagon.

What difference would it make, after all, considering the type of election we're going through now? This year, for the first time in recent memory -- and maybe the first time, period -- all the SA Senate seats are uncontested. That means that, unless students stage write-in campaigns in the eleventh hour, the people on the ballot will be guaranteed to win. How can they lose? No one's running against them except in the Law Center, which has a whopping three candidates for its Senate seat.

And the Senate is supposed to represent students' concerns and opinions to the University administration. But will it? How can it, when people don't even care enough to oppose candidates for their colleges' Senate seats?

This is not a complaint about the way the SA works, or an assessment of how the current SA administration has done its job. Truth be told, student representation is a good thing, and the administration in office has shown itself to be actively pro-student.

So think of this as a criticism to the students for not taking more of an interest in student government. It's the same old story: Students don't try to make a difference, then they complain when no differences are made.

This time, the students apparently don't care to the extent that the party that hopes to fill all the Senate seats -- Cougar Spirit #2 -- didn't even bother to advertise. There were no candidate debates. There were no campuswide campaigning drives. Why waste the time? The students wouldn't care anyway.

And Tuesday's voting seems to support that. Even with a new, easier voting system by which students can vote anywhere on campus, there was little response.

We hope students will take their last chance today to make a difference. Don't let the fact that candidates are running unopposed daunt you -- go to the polls and write in the name of someone who would better represent your college or, if you feel the balloted candidate is the best vote, then show your support. No one, especially an unopposed candidate, wants to win in an election where only three votes were cast.

Unfortunately, in this election, three may be a record.