Campus wide student elections will be held online Tuesday and Wednesday. Students will be able to vote for the SORF Board members, student trustee and representatives from each college for the Illinois Student Senate.

What bothers us is the lack of campaigning by candidates. Students are already apathetic towards this election as is because they generally consider themselves as having little stake in student government – even claiming that nothing the ISS does affects them. You’d think candidates and the Student Elections Commission would paper the campus with ads pleading students to vote. And the only signs of advertising, aside from sporadic chalking on Quad sidewalks, are facebook groups and registered student organizations’ e-mail lists?

Why exactly hasn’t there been extensive campaigning? We don’t expect mass media campaign ads, but at least flyers around the three Quad areas would be appropriate. Has there been a minimum of advertising just because the candidates want only their friends to vote to ensure their seats? It seems even student government doesn’t give a damn about its own elections.

The ISS and the SEC need to sex it up and motivate the students to vote. Voting for student trustee matters because he or she is the most powerful voice for students on the Board of Trustees – the student trustee helps to decide everything from tuition, to budget appropriation for a new building to the hiring of the new chancellor. Voting for the SORF Board matters because these are the people who decide where the enormous amount of student funds to RSOs go. Voting for the ISS matters because its members give student input on, and heavily influence, everything from tuition to building a new basketball stadium. The fact that there’s almost no advertising on these crucial issues is just plain ridiculous.

Having said that, it is important for students to take initiative – not just because they’re electing various candidates, but also because three separate referenda are up for consideration.

The first is whether or not the SORF board should continue receiving its $10 fee from each student. We vote that this fee be continued. This year’s SORF board has shown little sign of corruption and the funding is an important source to RSOs.

However, the second referendum asks if the fee should be increased from $10 to $14. The DI editorial board was split over this decision. Some are wary of awarding yet more student money to the SORF board, even if they have shown little sign of corruption. The SORF board has not made an active effort to increase accountability and transparency in how it awards funding – instead, members have gone on the defensive and said they already have all the necessary rules in place. Until SORF actively shows that it has standardized rules that adequately prevent corruption, it should not be given more money to fool around with. Yet, half the board felt that the fee should be increased to help adequately fund RSOs and Student Legal Services. One member chose to abstain.

The last referendum is whether the MTD fee, responsible for all campus bus routes, should be increased from $33 to $38 per student per year. Our vote for this is a resounding “yes.” The extra $5 is to continue existing services by countering the projected impact of inflation over the next four years. The buses are the backbone of transportation on such a large campus, especially with parking being such a problem and the cold weather being impossible for walking and cycling.

With such important issues up for voting, it is important for every last student at this University to vote. Come Tuesday, as was said during the November election, rock the vote.