The Student Government Association presidential slate election is five days away, and at the moment, there's no clear frontrunner.
Tuesday's debate offered the candidates an opportunity to present their issues and explain how they intend to improve life at Ball State University. The debate was a chance for the slates to reach out to a broad audience and expound upon their platform issues more than they had in the written platforms. However, neither slate took advantage of that opportunity to show how it would do things better, advocate for students stronger or make change happen faster.
Unless one of these slates can distinguish itself in the next five days, this election could become just another popularity contest - or worse, it could fail to compel students to vote at all.
Tuesday night, the debate involved too much recitation and repetition of the slates' platforms and not enough original information. Both slates discussed communication, without clear specifics regarding how to improve it. And neither slate was able to pinpoint - with confidence - the issues most prominent on students' minds. At this point, the most significant issue on which the slates have taken sides is the future of SGA - one slate hopes to make it grow while the other plans to keep it the same. But the innerworkings of SGA are not a daily concern to the average Ball State student. What students care about are results, not the bureaucratic motions behind them.
Aside from SGA's future, Team Lisec has continually brought up its plans to install a news ticker in the Atrium, and The Cardinal Movement is focusing on its Late Night Ride program to expand campus shuttle services. However, neither of these issues is going to move Ball State in a new or exciting direction - let alone significantly affect student lives.
To win this election, the slate members have to show student voters they're in this for more than just a fancy title on their r+â-¬sum+â-¬s. And a handful of colored posters or a detailed Web site aren't going to make that difference.
Both The Cardinal Movement and Team Lisec must spend the campaigning time they have left working to win over the student body. Perhaps it will take digging deeper into their platform issues and explaining exactly how they're going to make things happen, or perhaps they should just increase their efforts to connect with students on a personal level.
However they choose to spend the last days of their campaigns, the slates will need to make it clear what sets them apart from one another - how they plan to aid the student body more than the other slate would.
The only way to beat student apathy in this election is to give students something to care about-¡ - in the next five days.
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