Knock the Vote

Cheated.

That’s how we feel about this year’s Temple Student Government elections. And so should you.

On April 10, a slate will run unopposed
for student body president, vice president of student affairs and vice president of academic affairs. To say the least, this is a major disappointment.

How did it come to this? With more than 150 student organizations on Main Campus and with each organization having a representative in TSG’s General Assembly, we find it hard to believe that no three people believed in themselves enough to campaign against the team of Juan Galeano, Nadine Mompremier and Eric Stephenson. But then again, we’re not surprised.

This is the very reason why TSG has campaigned to “End Apathy.” Apathy has been the choice word to describe this student body and now it’s even more fitting of a moniker.

On this campus, we are apathetic. During last year’s campaign, “Owl Evolution”, the team of Galeano, Raysean Hogan and Priya Patel received a whopping 2,201 votes to best its opponent “Building Temple Tradition,” which received 1,083 votes.

Those totals had taken a dip from the previous year’s tallies, ending what was a three-year trend of increased voter turnout that started in 2003. For a campus this size – roughly 25,000 on Main Campus and the nation’s 26th largest university – that’s pathetic.

While having to cover an election with only one slate running will be unexciting for us, it should be a message to our colleagues.

There’s no room to mouth off about the lack of housing on campus, exorbitant food costs in the Student Center Food Court or inefficient academic advising, if you can’t even manage to put together a competitive election. We don’t care enough to participate in the democratic process of an election.

Yet, we also have to wonder about TSG’s culture. In the last four years, the incumbent, or a slate affiliated with outgoing leaders, has been elected. There have been no upsets and, by the looks of this year’s election, there probably won’t be one.

So what does this mean for the team of Galeano, Mompremier and Stephenson?

Victory is ensured, unless a write-in candidate garners two others to collaborate
and form a slate. The chances of that are pretty slim.

But their only opposition is you. Believe it or not, you still get to decide.