Spring is on its way, complete with “norts,” spring break planning, midterms and the threat of severe weather. Oh, and SGA elections. Did the 83 percent of campus who did not vote last year forget about those again?
A little amnesia is understandable under the circumstances of 2013. It is even understandable as a normal function of the college brain. Elections come around one day out of the year. How can we be expected to remember it when sometimes we are lucky just to remember when our next paper is due?
I propose we work to eliminate that excuse. Since SGA is under the Dean of Students Office and endowed, staffed and housed by the University directly, shouldn’t participation in its elections be enabled and encouraged by class curricula? To eliminate the “I didn’t know when or how to vote” excuse, on Tuesday, March 11, every professor should devote the first three to five minutes of class time to instructing the class on how to log on to mybama, click on the “VOTE” box in the top left corner of the home screen, and select their preferred candidates. Students should then be given a few minutes to place their votes as they so choose before continuing with normal class material.
Voting is a civic duty we as students owe to the Capstone community. Therefore, no professor should require voting or offer incentives for students to vote. They should merely provide students with a friendly reminder and a few minutes of class time with no other purpose than fulfilling that duty. College is the time to learn the duties and responsibilities of active citizenship that will be expected of us throughout our lives in a democracy, so why shouldn’t campus voting practices mirror those of the working world where employees have time allotted on election day to go to the polls?
If turnout remains low under this initiative, then students will have no one left to blame but themselves because they were given every opportunity to have a voice in their student leadership. High turnout is even more crucial this year considering the number of races contested between highly qualified candidates.
The onus should be on the individual candidates to convince their classmates why their leadership skills and innovative ideas will best serve the campus community. However, the burden should not be entirely on them to attempt to inform close to 35,000 students how and when to vote. This is the University’s grand experiment in campus governance, and faculty members and administrators should give as much support to increasing participation in the election process as they do to empowering the winners to be effective leaders.
To the passionate faculty at The University of Alabama, give your students five minutes of your class time, and they just might give you a better campus.
Leigh Terry is a sophomore majoring in economics. Her column runs biweekly.
