Jen Bushman said Tuesday’s student body elections were a disappointment.
With about 7 percent of graduate students turning out to vote, the president of the Graduate and Professional Student Federation said upper level students don’t realize the influence they could have.
The decisions that elected student leaders make — taking stands on tuition, transportation and basketball ticket distribution policies, for example — have more of an impact on graduate students’ lives than they realize, Bushman said.
“The thing about being a graduate or professional student is that unless it’s directly relevant to why you’re here, a lot of people won’t pay attention,” she said. “It’s hard to get graduate students involved in things — not because they don’t care, but because time is just so valuable.”
Although the GPSF president is a visible and direct representative of the population, many graduate students don’t understand that the student body president also represents them. In fact, the student body president is arguably the only member of the Board of Trustees who fights continually for students’ interests — the GPSF president does not sit on the BOT and is unlikely to do so anytime in the near future.
“It seemed like (the elections) catered mostly to undergraduate students,” said journalism graduate student Carrie Leonard. “It didn’t seem like it had anything to do with me.”
Leonard said she didn’t vote Tuesday because she was too busy to make an informed decision. “As a graduate student, I’m going crazy 24 hours a day, so I don’t even have time for things like this,” she said.
Bushman expected a higher turnout because of GPSF’s recent outreach efforts. She has been using online discussion forums and brochures to foster communication.
She said she thought GPSF’s e-newsletter, sent to more than 10,000 graduate and professional students, would engage the hard-to-reach crowd.
