The battle against apathy

During the past three weeks, fliers, posters, Indiana Daily Student articles, root beer bongs and noisemakers have hammered IU students with the same four letters: "IUSA." \nParties competing for this year's election have mobilized scores of campaigners to spread the word of Big Red, Crimson, Fusion and Hoosier Party.\nApparently, few students have noticed.\nThe elections for the 2004-2005 IU Student Association began at 10 a.m. Tuesday and will continue until 10 p.m. tonight. Students can log on to www.iub.edu/~iusa and vote with a valid IU username and password.\nSophomore Courtney King and junior Hannah Sacks said they were pretty sure the elections were some time this week but could only name two tickets. \nAll four tickets addressed the issues of campus transit, alcohol and tuition.\nKing and Sacks cited "tax-free textbooks" and "changing the (campus) colors to crimson" as the most prominent issues of which they were aware. They said signs on Greek houses and fliers around campus contributed the most to their knowledge of the issues.\n"I haven't seen anything out of the ordinary," Sacks said when asked which campaign events stuck out in her memory.\nFreshman Dana Wilkins said her sorority is voting for Crimson, although she admits being fuzzy on the issues and the purpose of IUSA.\n"We had a sign that says 'Vote for Crimson,' so I figured that's what we were standing for," she said. "But I don't know the issues behind anything, so I can't make an educated vote."\nSophomore Reesa Kossoff said the various methods tickets have used to educate voters have not been effective.\n"I haven't really learned anything except for the last couple of days when they've been bombarding everybody with pamphlets with a very narrow description of what they're trying to accomplish," she said.\nSophomore Nick Bokowy said he is familiar with IUSA and will probably vote for Big Red based on its plan for parking.\n"I'm not for or against a 'wet' campus, but I just don't think that's realistic," he said. "I think they did that just to get voters."\nJunior Keith Keal said he will make a point not to vote.\n"I'm against the idea of a student government spending our money when they have such a low voter turnout," he said.\nBut campaign volunteers are out in force to reverse student apathy.\nSenior Megan Slota, the current School of Informatics representative, spent Tuesday walking the dorms to raise support for Big Red. Of the students she talked to, nearly all voted, Slota said. Still, she had to bring some up to speed first.\n"First of all, they don't know who's running, and we have to explain our platform," she said. "Their biggest question is 'What can you do for us?'"\nMore than 6,000 voters turned out last year, and Elections Coordinator Derek Molter, a senior, said polls this year are on pace to beat that number.\n"This is a really big University -- there are a lot of students here as full time students, and they've got a lot on their minds," he said. "IUSA is just one part of that, even if we do speak for all students. But voter participation has increased every year. Student knowledge and understanding of IUSA is definitely on the rise."\n-- Contact staff writer Mike McElroy at mmcelroy@indiana.edu.