No one wins when no one votes
Published: March 26, 2010Section: Editorials
This editorial board was appalled by the week voter turnout in last week’s student body vote on the Constitutional Review Committee’s 11 proposed amendments. At most, only 279 students voted on these issues.
Some amendments received even fewer votes, such as one to change the Constitutional review process, which yielded only 220 votes.
This disparity is simply unacceptable.
The Constitutional Review Committee and Student Union are partially to blame for this problem. The Constitutional Review process and vote is meant to represent the entire student body. This cannot occur without voter turnout, and voter does not happen when students are unaware of the vote.
As representatives supposedly elected to look out for their constituent’s interests, senators and other Union members should have run a ‘get out the vote’ type effort.
Yet while the Constitutional Review Committee and Student Union are certainly to blame for a lack of advertising and consequential lack of votes, no one is more to blame than students themselves.
As students, we should take advantage of every opportunity to have our voice heard.
Though many of us may rightfully complain about the Union’s pompous attitude and detatchment from the rest of the student body, such problems can never be solved if we neglect to participate in our government in the most minimalist of ways.
We are not asking you to run in the upcoming Union presidential elections, nor are we asking that you join a committee. We are simply asking that you log onto your computer every so often and check a box or two.