College of Education. College of Family and Consumer Sciences. College of Veterinary Medicine. Graduate college. Frederiksen Court. Towers Residence Association. Union Drive Association. University Student Apartment Community.

That’s eight seats on the Government of the Student Body, combined.

Eight seats that represent thousands of students, seats that could provide students with a voice in student government, the body that acts as an intermediary with the state legislature, with university administration, and, of course, with our student fee money and campus organizations.

And, as the GSB elections currently stand, that’s eight voices lost.

Not a single student chose to run for these seats. The Off-campus Residence Area Senator race also has three open seats. In fact, there’s only one contested race in the entire election — College of Agriculture has three students running for two seats.

At this point we normally bury our heads in our hands, bemoaning student apathy. And don’t worry — we still plan to do that.

The real question, though, is why? Why, on a campus of 27,000-plus students, students who undoubtedly care about Iowa State and student rights, are only 26 students running for 38 senate seats? We have more than 600 student organizations; students are obviously involved in campus activities.

Part of the blame falls on GSB itself. If you know the process for running for a GSB senate seat, put down the paper, stand on your chair, pump your fist into the air and shout “I win!”

Because chances are you’ve probably already registered and won the election.

GSB could easily put the information on the front page of its Web site. Or post clear rules on bulletin boards across campus.

We have faith that 40 future politicians can pool their manipulative brain trusts and find a good public relations scheme.

Public perception of GSB has to change, as well. Despite the hours of hard work many senators invest in student government, a lot of people still think of them as them as dress-code nerds on an expensive ego trip. And while some senators do more showboating than substantive policy work, on the whole this is an organization that works for students.

It’s obviously too late to register now. But it’s never too late for a write-in campaign.

It got Drew Miller and eight other senators elected last year — who knows, maybe there’s a GSB presidential campaign in your future as well.