A Concern about Involvement and Participation

Dear Fox Students:

This week there was an election for the officers and members of the next UW Fox Student [Government] Association (SA). To say they threw a party and no one came is a bit of an overstatement, but not enough people came. The SA has a provision that says the election of an officer requires the winner to receive at least 75 votes. That did not happen and as a consequence, another election is necessary or you will be without leadership in our shared governance process.

To think that a campus of 1700 students has a voting turnout as low as our last election is disappointing. This time I think I saw more quality electioneering than I have in recent memory. I think you should care and here’s why you should care – it’s all about your money.

Each year the students you elect make decisions about how a whole lot of your money is spent. $281,000 to be exact. This is the amount of money that comes to Fox from you via segregated fees. And it is the SA that pretty much controls how that is to be spent. They decide how much you are going to be taxed in segregated fees. So you have a vested interest in making sure the students who make the decision are the people you want to make that decision.

In addition, this year, SA is spending an additional $86,000 to buy new furniture, and they have come up with a plan of where and how the students will be lounging. One of the candidates (who did not get 75 votes) reminded me that my blog post on the brown couch situation generated 106 comment, more commentary than any other blog posting I have done. You must have some interest.

The University of Wisconsin has the strongest tradition of shared governance in the nation. Shared governance means students participate in all our decision making processes except personnel decisions (like merit for faculty and promotion and tenure decisions. ) The people on SA represent you.

We just came off of a national presidential election where I believe where young voters made a difference in the outcome. There are people in the world who literally are willing to die for the right to vote. It’s a hallmark of our nation. It means representation!

Voting matters, be it for the President of the UW Fox SA or for the President of the United States.

So why is it that so few students are deciding to be participants?