Editor's Column 3/1

Story by Jacob Zlomke 

| Published Mar 1, 2011

We’re a week away from ASUN elections, and I’ve got some predictions: without any other options, an historically high voter turnout of 21% votes Action Party into office by an overwhelming margin; some measures get passed; some fees get approved; some new ASUN senators get elected.

If you think that sounds incredibly mundane, you’re in good company.

Despite this election’s banality, I’m still going to encourage you to vote. Just do it. I’ve advocated a few times for greater involvement around campus, and this is probably the easiest way to do it. There are some pretty simple things to vote for, like the senators from each college (whom you might know). But other than that, you’ll probably have no real ground on which to base your decision.

There will be a few things on the ballot this year though that might require a little more thought on the voter’s part. Mostly I’m talking about student fees. It’s easy to overlook these requests on the ballot, because, really, who cares about numbers?

My first instinct is to ask you to unanimously vote yes on all the student fee requests. Every fee user has the potential to serve you in a pretty big way. Look at the campus readership program, the Lied Center, the rec center, University Program Council. Anything that you get to use for “free” on campus is probably funded by student fees.

But if you’re a little more conservative with your votes than I am, and would like to save some money here or there, the carefully consider the repercussions of each vote. For instance, the Daily Nebraskan will be on the ballot for a roughly $5,000 increase for next year to allow for increase in printing costs. Maybe you’ve been upset with the DN at some point this year. There are a lot of people that probably wouldn’t blame you.

However, a daily, independent, student-run newspaper is pretty vital to the University, and taking money from it is no way to solve any problems. Less money means less coverage and less information for the students.

Then there’s the issue of this fine publication, the DailyER Nebraskan. You’ll be voting to give us a grand total of $6,400, which is neither an increase or decrease from this year. That amounts to about $.15 per student per semester. I hope there isn’t much that I need to say to convince you to favor us. Let our body of work speak for itself. I would think the past semester, with half satire and half entertainment, have been worth your 15 cents.

So, readers, do vote, even if it seems like it doesn’t matter. Vote, even if some of the things you might vote on really don’t matter. Your actions will have an effect. Go online next Wednesday and show your support, or your disdain, for the likes of the DailyER, the DN, UPC and every other fee user.