Editorial: The importance of student elections

Every year, The Observer typically moderates the debate between all the various candidates running for elected positions in our Undergraduate Student Government (USG). Through this venue, we see all the passionate people running to represent the student body at Case Western Reserve University and are able to learn more about each candidate, allowing us to compare their different plans, styles and ideologies. However, this year’s debates were canceled due to a lack of interest from candidates, and USG failing to organize the event in a timely manner. This speaks to how apathetic we are towards student elections despite the essential impact that USG has on all of our student experiences.

Many CWRU students never vote in student elections resulting in low turnouts every year. The lack of engagement on campus that is omnipresent throughout the year becomes even more pointed during this pivotal time. Elections should be exciting. It’s an event where different students give us different visions of CWRU’s future, theoretically inspiring us, enraging us or generally just moving us to vote in a certain direction. Unfortunately, this is rarely the case at CWRU. Campaigning mainly occurs through Instagram posts instead of in-person; although, it’s hard to fully blame the candidates, since the student body is indifferent.

Let’s not forget that USG is important to the student body. At its best, it can advocate for students to CWRU administration on issues we care about, create projects that deliver value to the student body and promote thriving student life. Actions such as the creation of the Student Activities Fee COVID-19 Emergency Fund (SAF-CEF) at the beginning of the pandemic, the advocacy to reduce student workloads and the efforts to expand dining and housing services have all been extremely essential for students, whether or not we know it. From reducing Plum Market grocery prices to asking the university to expand shuttle and Safe Ride availability, USG’s work is critical, even if it goes unnoticed by most. Unfortunately, when students don’t pay attention to our elected representatives, mismanagement can occur.

A major responsibility for USG is funding all the clubs it sponsors, with USG mass funding theoretically covering most of the clubs’ major operational expenses. Unfortunately, the funding process is needlessly complicated and prolonged. Many clubs do not receive the funding they need and are forced to resort to other funding sources—whether it be the SEC Allocations Committee (AC) or paying out of pocket for events. However, this is not because of limited USG funds. On the contrary, USG is currently sitting on around $250,000 worth of funds in its account that they have been unable or unwilling to spend. Each semester they continue to receive more funding through our student tuition dollars, yet they seem to be doing little to use those funds to bring value to the student body.

Accordingly, USG essentially failed their audit from the AC last semester due to mistracking and underutilization of funds and is on track to do so again this semester. A half-baked plan to create an endowment using student funds is currently under discussion at USG despite the ways it would withhold even more funds from the student body. This shouldn’t be happening and is a result of students we put in these positions. Who we elect to our elected positions matter and can positively or negatively impact the student experience at CWRU, as we have seen over the past few years.

It’s unfortunate, then, that so few students are running for election in USG. Only one student each is running to be the Vice President of Finance, the Vice President of Diversity and Inclusion, the Chief Judicial Officer and the USG president, respectively. With many of these major candidates being essentially shoo-ins for their position, and the others never being given the chance to debate each other, it is impossible to know how their ideas compare to others and thus difficult to ascertain whether or not candidates are truly the best ones for their position. This shouldn’t be how democracy works. Yet the state of campus disengagement is to the level that even the most important and influential elected position in the student body is being uncontested. This isn’t to say that any of the candidates are unqualified or that they’ll do a bad job; to the contrary we are very glad that they have the passion to run at all when so few students seem to be actively engaged in this process. It’s just a shame, especially after a year where we had four candidates running for USG president just a year ago. executive editor & publisher SHREYAS BANERJEE director of print SARA KHORSHIDI director of digital media HANNAH ALLEN director of design VINAYAK MATHUR development editor BEAU BILINOVICH engagement editor MULAN MA news editor GRACE JOHNSON life editor CHRISTIE LANFEAR opinion editor KARUNA LAKHIANI sports editor PUNEET BANSAL social media editor SOPHIA POPKIN photo editor CHRIS HEERMANN web editor COLLIN WONG copy editors RITIKA DEVARAKONDA, JULIA FENG-BAHNS & SHIVANGI NANDA layout designer TARUN SEPURI business managers NIKKI D’COSTA, PHUONG NGUYEN

As a result of this current situation and the lack of choice for many of these positions and the lack of debates, The Observer will not be doing our traditional endorsements. Instead we simply encourage all students to read up on all the candidates, make an informed decision and actually vote. While student politics may seem unimportant to your academic career, it can have direct impacts on your student experience. These elections will determine the funding for the clubs you are a part of, the building of new student spaces for you to study in, the amount of events we will have around campus and much more. Your voice is important and can shape CWRU’s future.

Voting can be done at vote.case.edu between April 15-16.

The Observer is the weekly undergraduate student newspaper of Case Western Reserve University. Established in 1969, The Observer reports news affecting students and provides an editorial forum for the university community. Unsigned editorials are typically written by the opinion editor but refle ct the majority opinion of the senior editorial staff. Opinion columns are the views of their writers and not necessarily of The Observer staff. For advertising information, contact The Observer at (216) 302-4442 or e-mail observer-ads@case.edu.

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