A News Perspective: Overcoming campus apathy

From April 11-17, NEIU students had the opportunity to vote for next year's Student Government Association officers. Bountiful flyers were posted all over campus, mass e-mails were sent to students' inboxes, and online voting was easily accessible. However, compared to the overall student population, the numbers of votes were unimpressive.

For example, for the position of SGA president, only 612 students voted out of just under 12,000 students. For the other top positions in SGA, the number of students who voted ranged from about 400 to 600.

Many might attribute this lack of involvement to the fact that NEIU is a commuter school with many students who work full time jobs and have numerous responsibilities outside of school. I have only been at NEIU for two semesters and this sense of student apathy is overwhelming. I can tell that many students come and go without even looking at the posters and flyers on the walls and bulletin boards. I have spoken to many students who didn't even know about the SGA election and about the candidates.

However, I have also noticed that many of the same students who are apathetic about things like SGA are very vocal about their issues with the school and its administration.

Eduardo Arabu Jr., NEIU's current student trustee and SGA president-elect, believes that these are the students that his administration would like to reach.

"One of the main priorities is to realign student government within the university community," said Arabu. "We need a front leader representation of the student population so that students know that if you have an issue, you need to come and let us know about it and work with us to fix it."

Although Arabu and the other students elected in officer positions within SGA have made a considerable effort to increase their presence on campus and will continue to do so in the future, they can only do so much. At some point, it is up to the student to make the effort to have his or her voice heard.

"If people don't take the time to do it then it's going to be difficult when you come complaining and we can't help you because you don't have the right people aligned," said Arabu.

Although there are many apathetic students at NEIU, there are also so many students who truly care about the school and put forth an effort to get involved. The effort can be as simple as taking the time to vote online in the SGA election or attending a club meeting every other week, or as substantial as organizing an event for the student body or campaigning for SGA with a vision of change for the future.

However big or small the effort to get involved may be, know that the option is available to you. It is easy to take NEIU at face value and discount your experience here because it is a commuter school and the common consensus is that people don't care what happens here. This doesn't have to be the consensus, and it certainly doesn't apply to everyone. Talk to anyone involved with SGA or Student Activities and you'll see that there are many students who feel a unique sense of pride in NEIU, and perhaps that pride will be contagious.