Another regular spring annual event has passed once again. No, I am not speaking of Spring Break, midterms or the shedding of clothes due to warm weather. I am referring to the Government of the Student Body elections, which came and went with little commotion, and is unarguably an event that sparks little attention from students.

Why the disinterest? I understand campus politics may not be every student’s cup of tea, but it should at least be something worth looking into and being informed about. Maybe it is the method of campaigning, or the lack thereof.

Whatever the reason, it pains me to witness this political event go by every year without more student awareness. The following are reasons why you should care, and what can be done to improve the system of electing the GSB president, vice-president and officers.

Most importantly, the president represents the student body. As stated in Article III, section 3 of the GSB Constitution, found at www.gsb.iastate.edu, “the President shall be the official representative of the students of Iowa State University.”

ISU students elect their president just like in a democracy, meaning all power lies in the voters, and the president is elected by popular vote.

This also means the GSB president will represent the students when negotiating with other organizations such as the Board of Regents and Ames City Council, so if you want the liquor buffet ban or the couch ordinance to be lifted, you better check how your president feels about the issue.

Secondly, the president of GSB has supremacy. Article III, section 1 of the GSB Constitution declares, “All executive powers and authority of the Government shall be vested in the President.” The president is responsible for the fulfillment of all laws and actions of the government, described in the constitution, bylaws, and senate bills.

An example of a policy President T.J. Schneider has flexed his authoritative muscles on has been the Dead Week Policy, which restricts professors from mandating major projects and tests during Dead Week, and I’m sure we have all benefited from it at some point.

Furthermore, the president has the power to veto any senate bill. So if he or she doesn’t like it, it doesn’t get passed.

The president also has the power to veto funding. So next time you wonder why your Table Tennis Club funds got cut, just remember the president has the final word.

This very recently happened when president T.J. Schneider vetoed a bill to transfer funds from the Fall Events Account to the Regular Allocations Account. The shift was an attempt to chip away at the $175,000 needed to balance the Regular Allocations Account. Thankfully, the Senate has the power to override presidential vetoes, and, in this case, did.

Now that we have seen how the president can affect students, it seems like electing a person with this much authority and importance would be of interest to students, right? This thought is undeniably not consistent with the voter turnout, with only 4,121 students voting, or approximately 15 percent of the student population.

Students need only to be taking at least one class at Iowa State to qualify as a student, and students on internships can vote as well. The winning candidate, Michael Banasiak, won with a whopping total of 1,395 votes, which equates to approximately 5 percent of the student population.

What can be done to increase voter turnout? A few things.

First, I think candidates should be able to start campaigning earlier. I first started noticing the campaigning just a few short weeks before the election, hardly ample time to research the candidates.

There should also be a decrease in campaigning restrictions. Inside the GSB’s Election Code are detailed constraints on what, where and how to campaign, including the requirement of the Election Commission stamp on all campaign materials. In the recent 2003 election, all three candidates were fined for violating these provisions, although campaigning in fairly reasonable ways.

Lastly, increase the time span in which students can vote. There should be more than two days. I recognize that this is the Information Age, but getting to a computer with the actual intention of voting may be hard to squeeze into busy schedules, especially around midterms.

Everyone needs to exercise their right to vote in GSB elections. Even though the polls are closed for the year, it is still necessary to keep informed about events that affect you as a student.