By Katie Maki
Bold posters have recently lined every square inch of the walls around SFU. Those smiling faces have looked back at you, promising integrity and experience, and you have wondered what it’s all for. Based on what the walls of the school look like, you would think that everyone is buzzing about the SFSS general election — but barely anyone gives a damn. Is it the students’ fault? Not entirely. The SFSS is largely to blame for the lack of enthusiasm surrounding politics here at SFU. With better communication and distribution of information on the part of the SFSS and its candidates, student excitement over the election might actually begin to reflect the frenzy of posters.
Politics influence every aspect of a person’s life, but student politics can be somewhat of a challenge to explain. Although it may not sway what you eat for lunch or what route you take there, the SFSS is a multi-million dollar organization that is funded with student money. Its leaders have the power to influence anything from the pub menu to the health and dental plan coverage. Furthermore, the SFSS represents student interests to university administration, potentially contributing to what SFU spends its money on.
If student politics influence students’ lives in so many ways, it may come as a shock to know that only a very small number of students vote in these elections. SFU’s commuter school reputation could be at fault for this lack of interest. However, students have lost sight of the bigger picture. If the voter turnout for an election is only a marginal portion of the student population, then students that have been elected to the SFSS are not really speaking for the majority. Things that affect your everyday student life are reflected by who you choose to represent you, and it can all change with a simple check beside ‘yes’ or ‘no’ — why would you ever choose not to vote?
However, there is a small population of students that stay really informed and up-to-date on the issues. Not surprisingly, this number of informed students often increases with election issues that students really care about. Last year, for instance, the U-Pass campaign helped produced a voter turnout approximately four times higher than the year before. It has been speculated that the SUB might have a similar effect of boosting voter turnout this year as well. However, such a temporary increase in student engagement doesn’t solve the overall problem with students getting informed.
This problem of being uninvolved has somehow been woven into the mind students at universities all over. Arry Dhillon, a current at-large representative for the SFSS who has been involved in 10 elections, spoke about his experience at Selkirk College. “Nobody knew about the student society at all
. . . Students didn’t know what they were voting for — they just knew me. That’s why they just wanted to vote,” he said. “That’s how I see a lot of [elections] going.”
This lack of involvement and knowledge could be a symptom of a dominant student attitude towards university nowadays. “People are more focused on their studies — which is a good thing, it is what they’re here for,” Dhillon said. “And so they don’t really care to get too informed. It’s not that they don’t care, it’s just that nobody has approached them to care.”
Dhillon suggests that a major problem for involvement is how student politicians approach students. But how would the SFSS go about informing the student body? “[Information on the SFSS positions] is somewhat hard to find for an average student. You see a poster on the wall that says ‘election coming up, get informed’,” Dhillon said. “But how many people actually go on that website at the bottom of the poster and get informed?” Although posters with detailed information sound appealing, he also explains the dilemma behind too much information. “At the same time, to fully explain what each of the 16 positions do, you would need a poster the size of a wall,” he said, laughing. “I don’t know if anyone would read that anyways.” Emails and posters seem to be how the SFSS distributes information, but how many people actually read every email they receive, or poster they see? “Students get emails from the SFSS and SFU all the time. Nobody is going to check them,” Dhillon said. Throughout Dhillon’s experience with student politics, he believes a person-to-person approach to communicating campaign platforms, issues, and ideas to students can go a long way to getting them interested and informed.
What about the election this week? There are only three candidates from the current board running for election — a number which Dhillon regards as “kind of low” — indicating that students may already be headed in the right direction in getting interested and involved in student politics. Although the general population may lack the knowledge of the system, more new faces are seemingly getting involved, which could really help in changing the dynamics of the SFSS.
Community seems to be SFU’s main issue. With President Petter’s recent motto swap, to “engaging the world”, students in this election have begun to step up to the challenge. But why don’t we take it a step further? If the small chunk of people that are informed could expand into a larger group, SFU might be able to get a sense of community back. Currently, community is lacking because there are so many different faculties and because SFU is strewn out across three campuses. Every student is going in a different direction. If all students could come together by having one united vision, such as for Build SFU, we could have a large number of students from different faculties all working together. If more students began to vote and get their opinions out there, the election results could represent a wider audience. Involvement could change the role student politics currently play.
The overall question is whether or not student politics can get to where it should be, despite where it is now. It all rests upon the shoulders of the student body and who is elected. If this year’s votes turn out like the year before, we may see a big change in the dynamics of student politics at SFU and a community may begin to form. That is, if those elected will try and change their strategy. With only a day remaining for campaigning, it’s time for those candidates to really step it up. “If [a candidate] actually goes up to [students] and talks to them about [the election] and puts a face to what everything is, then they get way more interested and involved.” So what’s the solution to SFU’s lack of student involvement with the SFSS? Put a face on politics.
