My friend’s friend is running for University Students’ Council president. I might as well vote for them, right?

It’s no secret many students have no interest or aren’t “in-the-loop” when it comes to the USC. Recently, I was talking to a media, information and technoculture student about the gimmicks used throughout the presidential campaigning process. Her response: “I don’t really care about elections — the presidents don’t really do anything anyways.” She then told me she knew someone who was running and showed me the campaign tag on her knapsack.

To make matters worse, a good chunk of my Facebook friends have also changed their statuses to something along the lines of “vote so and so for USC president.” Don’t get me wrong, I am all for people supporting their friends. It just bothers me how easily people will advocate something they don’t really know much about.

USC campaigning feels more like a high school popularity contest. But the candidates aren’t the ones to blame — it is the apathy sprouting from the student body. Many don’t see the point in doing real research and don’t think they have been given a good enough reason as to why they should.

As much as those in the USC want to believe their fellow students are voting for the right reasons, the reality is most of them don’t put that much thought into whom they are voting for.

Yes, the president is only in office for one year. How much can be done within that year? Probably not a whole lot. It is still disappointing, however, that students won’t take the time to do a little research outside of Facebook — or a few catchy campaign videos.

If we care enough about our buses going on strike, or where our hard-earned summer money goes, then why don’t we pay more attention when it comes time to select a person to make some very real decisions on our behalf?

Young people are always being told to vote and we complain that politicians don’t care enough about the issues that affect our demographic. But if we can’t get students to vote for something that directly affects them, then how can we expect them to vote in a federal election?  Maybe the general attitude towards USC elections is a symptom for a more serious problem — or maybe the problem is just pure laziness.