Point: 263. Really?

In this month’s Point/Counterpoint , City College News staff members Caleb Williams (Point) and Julie Sandburg (Counterpoint) debate the amount of votes in the recent student senate president election.

263. That’s it MCTC? That’s all you can do? You should be ashamed of yourself.

In this year of controversies regarding student leadership, only 263 people bothered to show up and vote for the next student senate president?

That’s a measly 2.42 percent.

With 10,870 students on campus this semester and an all-campus e-mail sent, you’d think a few more than one in 40 students could take the time out of their day to check a box on a sheet of paper and stick it in a box.
Of course, what do you know about the candidates? Checking a name on a box would just be that, not actually voting for any one person.

Of the three original candidates, at least two of them campaigned actively by distributing flyers and put up posters and sat in the T-Building – the busiest place on campus – answering questions and talking with students.

In addition all three of the original candidates were active leaders on campus before the election and two served as senators this year.

City College News posted videos of each the three original candidate’s speeches before the student senate explaining their positions and views on different issues.
While the videos got a total of 380 views as of April 1, 2010, we hope that the videos were informative.

With the busy lives MCTC students lead, not everybody is on campus Wednesdays, but fortunately student senate and the student life department were able print absentee ballots giving students the ability to vote before the day of the elections.

While not every student comes to campus – some only attend online – the number is not 97% of the student body, and therefore cannot explain the lack of voting in the election.

In the future, I urge you do exercise your democratic right to vote by doing just that: go out, get informed and vote.