Today is the beginning of Undergraduate Student Government elections, which will last until Friday. Students will be electing the USG president, vice president and Senate.
Skepticism and apathy toward the tangible importance of USG has increased, bringing voter turnout for USG elections to disgracefully low numbers. Last year, less than 6,500 students, or about 10 percent of OSU undergraduates, voted in the USG elections, about half of which actually voted for the winner, Eddie Pauline.
Negativity and doubt have grown toward USG’s ability to both contribute positively to Ohio State, as well as its ability to enact change to downsides of campus policy. There is also a popular sentiment among students that USG carries negligible (if no) amount of weight in both the Columbus and Ohio political arenas.
Annoyance has also grown toward USG because of their campaign tactics – primarily the preferred method: chalking. Students complain that chalkings are eyesores, and many gain even more skepticism because of the lack of effort put into promoting issue information in lieu of spreading name recognition.
While the blame seems to inherently fall upon USG for both student political apathy and its shortcomings in effectiveness, it may be the voters – not their representatives – who are at fault.
Political activity is waning in the United States – even U.S. presidential elections consistently see voter turnouts at less than 50 percent. Unfortunately, political activism is even lower among college students, who are considered a minor voting group for local, state and even presidential elections. This same political apathy manifests itself in USG tallies. What students don’t realize, however, is that it is their collective lack of political voice which makes them inconsequential.
In 2002, the Franklin County general election ballots totaled 285,685. If OSU’s roughly 44,000 students’ voted, voter turnout would have been almost 330,000, with OSU comprising about 13 percent of the voter population. While it seems small, any group representing 13 percent of a county’s voting citizens commands attention from elected representatives.
If OSU could form a large voter basis in city and state elections, its voice would be heard through ballots. However, if students also turned out high voting percentages in USG elections, their voice would be heard through USG, which constantly acts as a lobbyist for students to OSU, Columbus and Ohio. USG is working on higher education funding, domestic partner benefits, Ohio Union renovations and more. However, its voice will hold no power or influence if the bodies of government USG works with know it only represents a tiny fraction of a negligible voting bloc.
Students can only enact change in the responsiveness and representative power of USG by changing their “nothing works, why bother?” attitude. Often we want to see results before we invest, but in this instance, giving a little first – specifically, 5 minutes to vote online – may be the only way to see a significant return. Numbers count. Bigger numbers count more. Vote.
