Can you feel it, UB? The excitement in the air? It's student-voting madness, baby! Two elections in two weeks, 23 candidates for only eight elite spots! No. 1-seeded Viqar Hussain up against three mid-major underdogs for president - it's gonna be wild!
Wait. I take that back. I just remembered that few students even realize the UB Council election is going on right now. Most undergrads have no idea that next week they'll have the chance to choose next year's Student Association president, executive board, and SUNY delegates.
If you've been in the dark on campus politics, I don't blame you. Our first editorial today, "Vote out apathy," urges students to get familiar with the candidates and hit the polls when it counts, and I agree with that stance. This is largest candidate pool since 2003. If there is any election in recent memory to get even semi-excited about, it is this one.
But I also think the reality is that UB bureaucracy has given students few good reasons to vote. Each year we bemoan the turnout for elections, but considering how little who we choose matters, we should be quite happy with the 1,577 students who did vote in last year's SA election. For some perspective, that's about eight percent of the undergrad population. The year before, just over 12 percent voted, and officials were talking like they had brought democracy to Saudi Arabia.
Consider first the UB Council, a high-profile advisory board to UB President John Simpson. It has only one student member, so this should be a high-stakes vote for all students, but last year only about three percent cast a ballot. In the case of the council, though, the student job is a joke. It's a way for administrators to say they have a student involved in the process and look good to the community. I'm not saying administrators don't give a damn about students (that wouldn't make any sense), but let's be honest here. Among the big issues student reps have worked on the past three years are library and Alumni Arena hours (which still haven't been extended) and a University Heights initiative that fell apart.
The current student on the council, Jonathan Yedin, has had a voice in UB2020, but I've also seen each year how administrators pat the student rep on the back and then tell him to run along while the adults do grown up things.
As for SA, being an E-board member is hardly a joke, but here's the thing. Undergrads pay attention to SA for clubs, entertainment, or student affairs. By and large, SA handles each of these areas decently well. But because they do it well, and have been doing it the same way for some time now, anyone elected is going to be entrenched into a certain vein of needs and wants. For entertainment, the election winners will have to uphold fests and the comedy series. Yes, I suppose a certain president can affect who comes for Fall Fest, but that isn't as important as who is on tour when fests are usually held and how much money SA has to spend. These things are simply out of control of the candidates' hands. Case in point: the trouble in scheduling this April's Spring Fest, trying to find a headliner when there are several major concerts drawing the best names in rock. Your vote will have no effect on next year's fests.
When it comes to student affairs, I praise SA for its success in securing another health center, but sit in on any Assembly meeting and you'll quickly realize how ineffective SA is when it comes to advocacy. Your vote will have no effect on improving that.
And for clubs, this is the one area where interested parties have the most to gain, even though next week's winners have no voice in deciding the club budgets for the term they serve (that's done by this year's SA officials). Now, supposedly clubs are SA's "lifeblood," but only about one-fifth of undergrads participate in them. Some lifeblood. If you're a club member, your vote does matter (and I don't think it's a coincidence that voter turnout often parallels club member numbers), but if, like 80 percent of UB students, you're not a club member, your vote here means diddlysquat for you.
That said, here's the deal, UB: the student spot on the council has the potential to be tremendously progressive and impactful, as does any SA leadership seat. What we need are some candidates willing to step off the beaten path and fight like hell for the student voice.
As someone involved in The Spectrum's endorsement process, I can't share my own thoughts yet on specific candidates, but I can say this: these elections aren't meaningless. As cynical as I may be, I have to believe in the chance for change.
Come on UB. You have every reason not to vote. Now prove me wrong.
Photo: Courtesy of Matthew Messina, from the RMBERS' Instagram page
