One of The Mirror headlines last week stated that there was a respectable turnout for FUSA elections last week.

That is hardly true.

In a campus of about 4,000 students, a little over seven 700 cast their votes. Compared to last year, this year’s elections were treated like a joke.

Most people probably didn’t see much of a reason to show up since there were no opposing candidates for president or vice president. They’re the most important jobs in FUSA, and everyone knew the outcome a week early when Frank Fraioli dropped out. Both candidates ran without any major competition.

News flash: There were other positions that people were running for!

Class president. Class treasurer. Senators.

Was the reason that no one showed up the fact that there was not a contested presidential election or because no one else bothered to campaign for the other important seats?

Compared to last year, there was little advertising for the election at all. There were countless “Stagtastic” posters with pictures of Williams and Daly. Williams even went around to rooms to remind people to vote. It seemed as if he was the only one who cared about the 2007 FUSA elections.

Whether you like Williams or not, he deserves a lot of credit for his compassion and campaign skills. Others should take note.

I saw a small handful of posters for those running for class president, treasurer, and vice president. I didn’t see one poster for a senator running for the class of 2009 or the upper classes.

The freshmen did the best job of campaigning besides Williams and Daly.

Jeffrey Sieser and Spencer Ryan Thibodeau, both running for the 2010 class presidency, waited outside the cafeteria encouraging people to vote. I wish I could have given them a vote because they deserve the positions they were running for because they actually campaigned.

Do the current upperclassmen senators not care about keeping their position, or do they expect that they’ll keep their position for another year?

If you don’t campaign, why do you deserve the opportunity to represent us in the student government?

Tell us what you stand for directly. Show us that you care.

Most people don’t even know what senators do besides argue about wearing polo shirts or blazers.

Because the candidates running for Senate this year seemed to think that the election was a joke, the students who voted for them treated the election the same way. There were several write-in ballots for students not running and not in FUSA at all. People wrote in their friends rather than re-elect the people representing them. That’s pretty pathetic.

Many blame the general student body for not caring, but those in FUSA are to blame for the poor turnout for elections. School pride starts with them.

Campaigning is more important than any amount of red body paint or Stag T-shirts. If you show that you care about us, maybe next year we’ll care about showing up to the polls.

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