This week marks the 2008 student general election, which determines, among other issues, who will serve as ASI president and the ASI Senate. Also on the ballot this year is a referendum on the Instructionally Related Activity (IRA) fee, a proposal that would increase the fee from $10 to $80, with $50 of the proposed increase going toward intercollegiate athletics and the remaining $20 being allocated for the titular instructionally related activities. We at The Collegian strongly advocate students buck the trend of the last few years and vote in this year̢۪s election.

As far as the democratic process is concerned, turnout last year was disastrous. There were 494 total voters in the election, down from an already pathetic 1,398 voters the previous year, a drop from about six percent of students to just more than two percent.

Incumbency — while often a good predictor of election outcomes — was probably never so crucial to the victories of the candidates as it was on this campus for our current batch of ASI representatives.

Simultaneously, ASI is allocated more than $600,000 annually from student fees — money we as students pay each semester. It seems important to us that this money, which is coming from our pockets, is put in the hands of officials we honestly trust, rather than ones we were simply indifferent to.

It̢۪s time for us to start caring.