Yesterday, Andrew Rose became the next Student Government Association president, but he didn’t exactly rise from the flurry of golf carts and sidewalk chalkings with much glory. Though voted president, he was deemed fit by only 6.2 percent of the 26,000 undergraduates at the university.
This election had the lowest voter turnout in recent memory despite there being eight candidates for students to choose from. We conceded in a prior staff editorial that none of these candidates were outstanding, and that though we endorsed Rose, we did so with great reservation. So we really can’t blame students for taking a hands-off approach this year. It was tough to choose someone appealing out of the candidates — those with appealing personalities lacked the basic knowledge. Those with the knowledge lacked the personality typically sought in a candidate.
There simply wasn’t a satisfying choice, nor a campaign that caught the attention of enough students. No SGA president has won by less than 40 percent in recent memory — until yesterday. And of those who decided to vote, 273 abstained from choosing a president at all. The candidates should be embarrassed they couldn’t reach nearly 300 of the voters, and even more so, that such a large majority of the student body felt disconnected enough to avoid voting at all.
Former SGA presidents Tim Daly and Aaron Kraus have been criticized for their over-the-top stunts and vocal outcries on student issues. But they were the types of candidates who got votes. Students either hated them or loved them, but both got reactions out of people. These leaders made themselves known, and students either voted for someone they liked or against someone they hated. This year’s eight lukewarm candidates most often provoked a shrug and a response of, “Who?”
Students’ voting habits indicate SGA future candidates must improve their game. Next year, candidates should consider ditching the old golf-cart politics and try something more productive. Students need to see and believe in candidates’ enthusiasm about the issues, as they did with Daly and Kraus, and with luck that enthusiasm will transfer over to the ballot. Once candidates draw students’ attention, voters can finally begin to rate them and make their final choice. This year, that just didn’t happen — students weren’t armed to evaluate and select a candidate. And it would be shameful to turn this into another SGA tradition as ineffective as the golf carts.
