Tonight, as with every Wednesday night, the Government of the Student Body Senate will be meeting at 7 p.m. in the Memorial Union, and on behalf of my fellow senators, I invite and encourage every student to attend. This semester has started off with a bang for campus government, yielding high responses and opinions from the student body. There have been more than a handful of students who have written responses or have voiced concerns to student leaders — this trend needs to continue and expand.

But don’t stop with GSB. There are countless other meetings and councils you should pay attention to. You have councils for your colleges and for your area of residence. In the residence halls, the councils start off at house level, branching out to the entire residence hall association. Off-campus students also have representation with off-campus government. The greek community operates at chapter level, as the Interfraternity, Collegiate Panhellenic and National Pan Hellenic Councils, and even collectively in cooperation with each other. The options for student government participation in Ames are endless.

Students need to especially pay attention to the issues that are going on in the City of Ames. For at least three-quarters of the year, most of us call Ames home. A number of other students stay in Ames for the entire year.

Although the university and city have coexisted for more than a century, things haven’t always been so peachy in the relationship. The student body can recall some of the most recent of the issues, such as the ban on having indoor furniture outdoors (lovingly known as the “couch ordinance”), an increase in restrictions on city drinking establishments, an increase in parking fines and a crackdown on residence occupancy limits.

The way the city treats and reacts to its student residents can be annoying. The increase in the tax rate, for instance, is more of a hassle to students than it is to the rest of Ames residents. A smarter choice to create revenue for the new middle school should have been to raise property taxes instead of sales tax. With the distribution of income, and especially the necessity expenditures of a college student, the increase in sales tax becomes more of a burden for the students — most of whom do not and most likely will not have students who will even utilize public education in Ames.

Slowly, student voices have been rising in our little city. Students were granted an ex officio non-voting cabinet position on the Ames City Council. Along with the creation of that position, students have taken an interest to stay involved in the community that has for years been their home. Casey Harvey, Nathan Johnston and Gregory Velasquez are candidates for the council’s at-large seat this year, and Matt Denner is running for the 4th Ward seat. While no ISU student has previously held a position on the council, this could be a turning point in improving a relationship that even the current city council agrees has been strained.

The fact that students are on the ballot should be a motivation to get students out to the polls, or at the very least, registered for absentee voting. But, whether or not students actually vote for another student is beyond the main point. While I want to see a student serve this city just as much as anyone else, the main importance is getting students to participate in this community. Attending public forums, contacting their representatives and making their votes count is what matters above all.

In the last election, there was a voter turnout of 527 out of a total of 2,585 registered voters between the two Ames precincts that have the highest percentages of student residents, according to a Sept. 10 Daily article. Of the 25,875 students who were on campus during last year’s Government of the Student Body elections, there were only 4,121 students who showed up to vote, according to a March 14 Daily article. A mere 15.9 percent of students voted for our current GSB representatives — it shows how apathetic we students have been in our own affairs, let alone being proactive in the community around us.

To create our own best Iowa State, we need to be proactive in the affairs that go on here on campus. The decisions that are made by leaders on our campus and in our community affect all of us, and keeping up-to-date with everything is a sure-fire way to make your voice heard and your opinions considered. Stay involved with our campus, and our community — we’re building our own future.