Today, UNC students once again head to the polls to elect next year’s student leaders. While most of you probably won’t care, you should.
And here’s why: During the past four years, voter turnout has gone down about 50 percent while in-state tuition has increased more that $2,800. As students at the nation’s oldest public university, we should care deeply about having our votes counted.
Moreover, our elected leader sits on the Board of Trustees, a privilege afforded to few other students — elected leaders or not — at comparable universities. UNC students have a bigger, better soap box to stand on than we might realize.
One of the beauties of public education is that it doesn’t just inspire great thinkers; it inspires great citizens.
But despite a storied history of civic engagement, UNC students today are some of the most apathetic and underrepresented in the state.
Our student leaders are the only representatives we have. We need them in order for our voices to be heard at the administrative level.
But how can we expect the chancellor, members of the Board of Governors or state legislators to respect our student leaders if less than 15 percent of students bother to vote?
Student government isn’t sexy, but the impact of our student leaders’ decisions extend farther than many of us like to believe and can hit us where it really hurts — our pocketbooks.
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