Student involvement in the Government of the Student Body has always been low, and many students feel the apathy is due to a lack of awareness.

Molly Foster, senior in bio-chemistry, said low interest in government seems to be a prevailing problem in general.

“I think it’s sad that more people don’t know about GSB,” she said. “It’s just like the U.S. government — a lot of people don’t care, and they think it’s crappy. People don’t vote or get involved.”

Foster said blame for the lack of interest should not be pinned on GSB.

“The fault is with the students themselves. GSB is very supportive, and they do a lot of things for the university,” she said. “They support a lot of clubs and organizations on campus financially and hold a lot of activities. People just don’t see that.”

David Culpepper, junior in political science, said he is aware of GSB’s involvement with campus life.

“I would say that it’s borderline underground, but I would definitely not belittle them because, as a political science major, I know that what they do affects a lot of campus money, activities and life, even if other students don’t necessarily know that,” he said.

“They hold a lot of power,” he said. “They can kill an organization if they want to or feel it’s unnecessary by cutting off their funding.”

Culpepper said GSB could do a little more to inform students of its agenda.

“It’s very rare that I know what their agenda is or what issues are being posed. I think they really could do something to inform people,” he said.

Culpepper also said GSB is not to blame for student apathy.

“There is a general public apathy towards local government,” he said. “It’s definitely not GSB’s fault that people don’t know what’s going on.”

Timothy Radloff, graduate student in sociology and education, was more critical of GSB.

“GSB has a lot of potential because they look for and get limited student participation,” he said. “However, they also need direction because they are seriously lacking in terms of diversity and other student issues, such as disabilities and multi-cultural and racial issues.”

Radloff also said GSB could do more to inform students about what is going on.

“For instance, they could send letters to incoming students. I realize it’s a lot of letters to send out, but they need to notify students that there is a student body that deals with and works with student issues,” he said.

Amanda Whitmarsh, senior in math, said it is hard to tell why students don’t get very involved in student government.

“Maybe it’s just because a lot of students are just not interested in government,” she said. “I think we should be because they address issues that concern us students.”

Maggie Schroeder, senior in civil engineering, said she has no complaints about GSB.

“I know they fund a lot of activities, but I also know they are serving a purpose,” she said.

However, Schroeder said she thought something could be done to stimulate student involvement.

“The people in GSB are very active about GSB, but as far as most of the student population goes, there’s really no involvement,” she said.

“Voter turnout is low because nobody really knows what it’s about,” Schroeder said.