COLUMN: Aggie students are too dumb to be trusted with voting power
I’m going to be as frank as possible: If you’re a USU student and don’t care about student government elections, you’re an idiot.
If you disagree with me, I’d love for you to explain yourself in a letter to the editor.
USU Student Association elections aren’t like your typical high school president popularity contest. At the university level – at least here anyway – the student government deals with issues that actually matter. These elected officials make decisions concerning student fees that you, as students, pay every year.
“USU/SA can’t actually make decisions,” you may say. “They can only suggest changes to the administration who can.”
That’s true. How do you think the administration knows what students want?
The thing is, if you don’t vote, then you don’t have much basis to complain when you don’t like something going on around campus. Everyone seems to like complaining, but very few actually care enough to actually do something about it, like vote.
Approximately 10 percent of the student body voted for a presidential candidate in the 2013 ASUSU primary election. Approximately 5 percent of the student body voted for the leading candidate. Is that really winning an election?
No one cares. My suggestion: Eliminate student government elections.
We should transition to appointed positions only, chosen from a body of students who apply – that’s basically what’s happening anyway when candidates run unopposed.
– Tavin Stucki is the editor in chief of The Utah Statesman. His articles have won awards and appeared in numerous news publications throughout Utah. Send any comments to statesmaneditor@aggiemail.usu.edu.