Student elections just can’t seem to generate interest, even in an election season with record youth turnout and enough political mishaps to fill a newspaper (literally). In Thursday and Friday’s DSG elections, Lawrence Chen, whose signature platform idea was a C-Food bus from Edens to McDonalds, beat out serious candidate Andrew Tutt fairly handily and narrowly lost to runner-up Kevin Troy (510 to 479 votes). Apparently about 10 percent of undergraduates (510 votes of the 6,000-large student body) care enough about the election to vote, but not enough to vote for someone who ran a real campaign.

The best example of student disinterest and ambivalence is the embarrassingly poor turnout at Wednesday night’s debate in the Great Hall. I would estimate 30 people were there—15 of whom knew a candidate personally, 10 of whom were eating dinner and 5 of whom actually cared. Yet the debate ran front-page with lead visual in The Chronicle the next day. Any other speech that encourages .5 percent of the student body (and a slightly less embarrassing 1 percent of the
voting body, assuming everyone attending voted) to turn out wouldn’t grace the front page.

This is a good example of an event that people should care about, but don’t. A forum to discuss pressing University issues with arguably some of the most powerful and influential students. At The Chronicle, issues like judicial affairs, campus space and Duke Student Government are discussed regularly not just because they are good fodder for stories but also
because the students who report and cover the University are naturally going to be more interested in University issues. Same as with DSG.

But in all honesty, most students either are too busy to care or just don’t want to care about these legitimate campus issues. Moreover, a vote for Jordan Giordano or Troy or Chen or Tutt is unlikely to make much of a difference, not because the one vote doesn’t affect who wins (because it does, just ask Brett Aresco who lost the VP Athletics and Campus Services position by four votes out of about 2200) but because the people who ultimately decide whether DSG is effective - the administration - are not elected.

How, then, should DSG or student leaders in general work to get students to care more about their University and the issues it faces? Increasing turnout at a debate or speech or forum is good way to start. Duke offers many opportunities to engage in discussion and debate, but these opportunities are too often under-utilized.

I wish the best of luck to Giordano and the VPs in leading our student body. But they need to fully realize that they are more glorified lobbyists than powerful politicians. Because that is what DSG does: act as the lobby for student interests before the actual policymakers - administrators - make the decisions.

 -Eugene Wang, Wire Editor