Spring Break
Hit the polls or stop your complaining
COLIN DUNLOP
Issue date: 1/24/07 Section: Opinions
- Page 1 of 1
I am far from the perfect participant, and the Student Government Association is far from the perfect organization.
However, last year, we wed in a holy ceremony known as voting. That's right, I voted in the 2006 SGA elections.
This only sounds surprising because there's a mere 4,081 out of about 33,000 chance you voted as well. For you non-math majors, that's about 12 percent.
Now, sit back for a second and think on that number - 12 percent.
That's nowhere near passing any assignment, lower than the lowest percent you can get on the old SAT (you got 12.5 percent just for writing your name) and likely the same number of people that enjoyed K-Fed's CD.
Probably the only thing 12 percent is greater than is most students' blood alcohol content on a Saturday night (unless, of course, it's "power hour").
Twelve percent is a dismal representation of student thought and voice.
Yet, I guarantee that more than 12 percent of students care about The Key and fall break - two of SGA's key "victories" from this past year.
But let's turn now to another number - 88.
It's the other half of that voter turnout number - the percent of student's that didn't help choose their student representation last year.
Eighty-eight is a B+ by many faculty's standards and it also happens to be the number in miles per hour Marty McFly had to reach in his De Lorean to go into the future.
What is most astonishing, however, is that I feel secure enough to bet money that close to 88 percent of University students have Facebook accounts.
Now that proper distinctions have been drawn between 12 and 88, I pose a question to you - why was voter turnout a 12 instead of an 88? Shouldn't it be the other way around?
SGA elections aren't the only thing we have become apathetic about.
Just look at the attendance for "Open Mic with Mike." The president of this University actually sets aside time for students to come and launch into him in front of his face - and yet attendance is dismal.
The last report by The Red & Black estimated past "Open Mic" attendance to have ranged from as few as 10 to as many as 50 students.
I've pondered the question of student apathy for a few weeks now and I've come up with this:
As students, we have become too comfortable in our own self-important world. While our parents had to scream in person at protests and rallies, the Internet helps us anonymously voice our concerns from behind a keyboard.
Everyone complains, but they do so as they take whatever new unpopular resolution there is straight up the tailpipe.
Why has it become cool to keep quiet and suffer in silence? I thought the emo movement was over.
So join me on Wednesday and vote for the S.O.S. party or to disband SGA. Whatever your choice is, just vote for something. If you can log onto Facebook, you can log onto OASIS.
Or, of course, you can just create another Facebook group about it - because that's been real effective.
However, last year, we wed in a holy ceremony known as voting. That's right, I voted in the 2006 SGA elections.
This only sounds surprising because there's a mere 4,081 out of about 33,000 chance you voted as well. For you non-math majors, that's about 12 percent.
Now, sit back for a second and think on that number - 12 percent.
That's nowhere near passing any assignment, lower than the lowest percent you can get on the old SAT (you got 12.5 percent just for writing your name) and likely the same number of people that enjoyed K-Fed's CD.
Probably the only thing 12 percent is greater than is most students' blood alcohol content on a Saturday night (unless, of course, it's "power hour").
Twelve percent is a dismal representation of student thought and voice.
Yet, I guarantee that more than 12 percent of students care about The Key and fall break - two of SGA's key "victories" from this past year.
But let's turn now to another number - 88.
It's the other half of that voter turnout number - the percent of student's that didn't help choose their student representation last year.
Eighty-eight is a B+ by many faculty's standards and it also happens to be the number in miles per hour Marty McFly had to reach in his De Lorean to go into the future.
What is most astonishing, however, is that I feel secure enough to bet money that close to 88 percent of University students have Facebook accounts.
Now that proper distinctions have been drawn between 12 and 88, I pose a question to you - why was voter turnout a 12 instead of an 88? Shouldn't it be the other way around?
SGA elections aren't the only thing we have become apathetic about.
Just look at the attendance for "Open Mic with Mike." The president of this University actually sets aside time for students to come and launch into him in front of his face - and yet attendance is dismal.
The last report by The Red & Black estimated past "Open Mic" attendance to have ranged from as few as 10 to as many as 50 students.
I've pondered the question of student apathy for a few weeks now and I've come up with this:
As students, we have become too comfortable in our own self-important world. While our parents had to scream in person at protests and rallies, the Internet helps us anonymously voice our concerns from behind a keyboard.
Everyone complains, but they do so as they take whatever new unpopular resolution there is straight up the tailpipe.
Why has it become cool to keep quiet and suffer in silence? I thought the emo movement was over.
So join me on Wednesday and vote for the S.O.S. party or to disband SGA. Whatever your choice is, just vote for something. If you can log onto Facebook, you can log onto OASIS.
Or, of course, you can just create another Facebook group about it - because that's been real effective.
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