The University of Richmond Collegian 02/09/95

Staff Editorial

by Jeffrey Carl, Opinion Editor

What We Think

an Opinion from the Collegian Staff

“WCGA Elections”

There’s an old saying that a people has exactly the type of government it deserves. If it participates actively in the choice of its government, then it has the leaders it has demonstrated that it wants. If it is not a well-informed or active electorate, then its own lack of concern ensures that it gets in a government what it deserves.

Yesterday’s Westhampton College Government Association executive election demonstrates hope that Westhampton College is in the good hands of an electorate that cares. Not only were there three candidates for the presidency, but the embarrassing but recently oft-repeated process of staging a second election because an insufficient number of voters turned out has been avoided. Even worse, a repeat-election scenario would have shown that none of the candidates even cared enough to stuff the ballot boxes, and if they did, they didn’t stuff it enough.

When only one candidate runs for an office, it does not at all necessarily imply that the single candidate is inferior; but it does say that the post is probably not well-enough coveted to engender the interest of a number of candidates with diverse opinions and plans of action. Many people blame the malaise in current American politics on the stagnation of ideas partly created by a two-party system and the near-invariable two-candidate elections it fosters. The fact that three candidates ran for WC’s top spot this year showed that Ross Perot was in town again. No, it showed that enough people had enough differing ideas about what to do and what direction the college should take to make it interesting.

The voter turnout for the election was also impressive. It’s easy to be sucked into a lax attitude about student government, and think “My vote doesn’t matter.” But it does. The longest journey starts with the smallest step.

It is not enough to say that every vote counts and move on. The reasoning behind casting a vote is founded in the idea that your candidate might win by one vote, and that vote could be yours. Moreso, it is founded in the distinctly unique idea that people care enough about what is going on to take an active role. It is true that on-campus politics don’t always affect many terribly serious issues. But the fact that, for four years, the University of Richmond is home is enough to make taking part in the democratic process worthwhile. The choice of student government officers will probably not result in the school’s approving co-ed showers or turning the Fine Arts Building into a water slide park. But it might bring you The Cellar, or a male safety shuttle, or an ever-so-slightly nicer world.