With Ames City Council and mayoral elections coming up in November, candidates are busy campaigning without much notice from ISU students, despite student involvement in city issues being a central part of several campaigns.

One student, Ryan Doll, senior in political science, is running for a 3rd Ward seat.

Students said they are either too busy to follow the candidates’ race or they just don’t care.

“I don’t know anything and I don’t care too much, to be honest,” said Dan Cosgrove, sophomore in pre-advertising.

Although many students share a similar sentiment to Cosgrove’s, some said they care about the elections but just haven’t heard anything after being gone all summer.

“It’s not that I don’t care,” said Courtney Johnson, senior in apparel merchandising, design and production. “I just haven’t really heard anything; today is the first day I have picked up a Daily.”

Carrie Nichols, senior in elementary education, said she’s vaguely heard about candidates but is interested in the election.

“I heard about it but I haven’t had a chance to find out details,” she said.

“I think it’s important to elect somebody that has an interest in students.”

Ryan Thompson, sophomore in LAS-open option, said classes come before city government so he hasn’t taken much time to follow the campaigns.

Ames Mayor Ted Tedesco said it is important for students to take an interest in community issues, but understands academics come first.

“I remember when I was a student and was more concerned about passing my next test than what council was discussing at their next meeting,” he said.

“But if they really feel that they want to be part of the community, they need to understand the issues that face this community.”

Another factor that contributes to student apathy is that the majority of students are temporary residents. Students are here for their education and then plan to leave to find a job, so there isn’t a lot of interest from them, Tedesco said.

“I understand that students concentrate more on education than on local government and there is not much we can change about that,” he said. “I’ve been here for about 51 years and […] student interest has been about the same over the years.”