With Jesse Neader's SOUND victory in last week's elections, the timeworn stereotype of S.S.D.D. - Same Senate, Different Delegates - finally might be on its way out.
What the new administration has in store for OU students, of course, remains to be seen. However vague or concrete now, senate's real agenda is ultimately going to be determined by the grit senators have next fall. There, too, are a lot of unknowns, such as what will be included in the noise ordinance that will inevitably be passed during the summer.
The exciting part is the election results themselves. OU students didn't show up in record numbers, but did double last year's turnout. Even more surprising, students came out in droves solely for the student candidates. It was as though the election results were a throwback to the good ol' days with votes of no confidence and genuine, pan-campus discontent.
If only the same could be said about Athens' primaries two weeks before. When students were thronging to their computers to cast their votes for senate, Athens precincts 2-1 and 2-5, both located inside Baker University Center, reported turnouts of 1.32 and .59 percents respectively. Precinct 2-5, which was created because so many students showed up for the 2008 elections that they had to split it up, posted the lowest rate in Athens County.
This shouldn't come as a surprise, but then again, perhaps it should. OU students pride themselves on being more media literate and tech savvy than the regular Athens citizen. This, however, is useless if they don't opine. You can't spell informed voter without a vote.
As any informed voter would tell you, the gubernatorial and U.S. Senate elections this fall are going to be, by off-year election standards, momentous. If the pendulum swings too far right, we might risk another two years of filibusters and inactivity from Congress. Too far left, we might risk an overcompensating liberal backlash to the Bush years. This is a time when every vote truly does count.
But when only 13.89 percent of registered voters in Athens County vote in a primary, this democracy of ours is starting to look like an oligarchy, with masses ruled at the mercy of scheming voters.
The blame isn't all on apathetic college students. While students were chalking up walls, campus would've been remiss to have even a flier for a real local politician. This draws a stark difference from the Student Senate election, where students were showered with gifts and oblations and candy just to log onto the OU website and cast their two cents, as though we were Pavlov's bobcats.
I know what you're thinking. You're sitting there at a dining hall or at your computer or reading this out loud next door in the sanctum of Student Senate. What message could I possibly have for senate?
Truthfully, nobody can explain why so many people turned out to vote, but what it leaves us with is that students are concerned about what's happening on campus. That is more than just a token of good will. Student concern drives student affairs, and next year's senate administration needs to pursue and foster this rekindled interest.
I challenge Student Senate to redouble and make a full-court press in reaching out to students in more and innovative ways. We've seen this already with the latest changes to campaigning rules on the table, rules that engage students rather than alienate passersby. Extending the voting window to two days is also another great way to draw in first-time voters or people too busy to get to a computer during the course of the day.
The next thing to go would have to be election rule 100.13, which waters the election down into a beauty pageant by stripping from candidates the ability to attack each other's credentials.
Platforms need to pony up and treat campaigning less like equestrianism and more like buzkashi. The Afghan equivalent of polo, buzkashi substitutes the ball and mallet for a goat carcass - an excellent new direction for senate that plans to get things done.
Adam Liebendorfer is a sophomore studying journalism and Spanish, and Friday columnist for The Post. If you're like him and shout Filibuster! when you stub your toe, let him know at al211307@ohiou.edu.
4 Opinion
Adam Liebendorfer
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