Judging by last year’s numbers, either no one knows today is the second day of Student Government elections or no one cares.

Last year, less than 12 percent of Eastern students voted in the Student Government elections. Only 1,229 students voted, leaving 9,498 students that didn’t.

To say Eastern has an apathy problem with its students is like saying the Chicago Cubs have a problem winning a World Series.

Except the Cubs have a cute little curse to blame it on. The Cubs have a terrible season and the team’s fans can blame it on an angry, tin can-eating barnyard animal. If Eastern’s Student Government elections have a terrible turnout for elections who gets blamed? Perhaps the ghost of a former resident adviser in Pemberton Hall is preventing people from turning up at the polls.

The biggest reason for low turnout is students don’t realize what Student Government does. The idea of Student Government conjures up memories of the glorified popularity contests from high school, only instead of planning boring school dances with lame themes, Eastern’s Student Government is making legitimate decisions affecting students. Students should care about Student Government because it has influence on how hundreds of thousands of dollars in student fees are spent.

Student fees that Apportionment Board controls, tuition increases, allocations for new equipment in the Student Recreation Center, Board of Trustees decisions – all are affected by Student Government.

Some students abstain from Student Government elections because they don’t realize it affects how their student fees are spent. Others don’t bother to vote because choosing between the candidates is like choosing between purple and violet.

The only issue separating the parties is the way they want to accomplish the same goals. The major political parties on Eastern’s campus, Students Voice and Campus Change, acknowledge they want to get funding for Recognized Student Organizations. The only difference is the method.

The members of Campus Change know what they want to do, but their method is complicated and adds to bureaucratic hassles. Students Voice, on the other hand, knows it wants to get more funding for RSOs, but didn’t present a plan for doing it.

Why should students want to vote for someone who will bog down the legislation with more red tape, or worse, waste time by not having an idea for fixing a problem they acknowledge exists?

Students might also avoid voting because they don’t take the candidate seriously. When a candidate promotes himself by asking voters if they want someone with “Real World” experience, it raises the question of what type of person is being elected. It’s bad enough some students receive more news from MTV then they do from CNN, but now MTV has weaseled its way into the political landscape. I know I don’t want the same network that has given the world such thought-provoking shows as “Singled Out,” “Dismissed” and “Jackass” giving political advice to impressionable idiots.

Some goals candidates have, like lowering the bar entry age, are just not feasible and seem like a desperate attempt for attention.

No matter how desperate promising to lower the bar entry age might seem, with more than half the campus population being underage, it just might work. But what do you expect from students that go to a school where the Student Recreation Center is open for more hours than the library?

It may, however, get students to take part in Student Government and that’s better than the current president.