It’s that time of the year again. We’ve been back in classes for a few weeks, new first-years are finding their niches, and new friendships are being made. Everyone is back into the swing of things. Then ASPC elections come around and shake the campus to its foundations in a fierce competition for just a few spots in campus politics. Okay, not exactly. In fact, the student following of the elections tends towards the other side of disturbing, as most students have little clue what is going on in terms of our student government.

It wasn’t until a couple of days before elections that I even knew who was running for sophomore class president. By the time I actually saw a candidate putting up flyers, I had assumed that no one was interested enough to run and that Jake Oken-Berg or someone would have to get up and beg someone to take on the job. Even after learning the names of all three candidates, reading their platforms in the paper, and attending the candidate forum, I still had no idea what each one’s platform was, except for the one guy who talked a lot about making it easier for sophomores to get free beer. Now, I have nothing against beer, freedom, or any combination of the two, but I’d like to know a little bit more about people’s visions for the position.

Besides election apathy, there is little campus-wide interest in terms of what goes on behind the scenes and at ASPC meetings. Yes, I admit I probably wouldn’t want to sit through meetings once a week in order to hear about five policies that don’t concern me and one that does; nevertheless, I feel that there should be ways of keeping the student body more informed in the first place. Perhaps the ASPC could arrange a mailing list of students interested in the goings-on at Senate meetings and in different committees so that those who want to know can be aware of what exactly it is that the Senate is doing.

This lack of basic knowledge about what the ASPC can and cannot change about Pomona is a big component in the lack of interest in elections. Instead of informing us about specific goals for the year and policies worth changing, every candidate’s flyers look distressingly similar. It seems they fall into one of two categories. Flyers are either a very simple flyer with a lot of blank space punctuating a somewhat humorous statement or a long list of ambitious goals (with each candidate having basically the same goals).

Since the vast majority of students really don’t know what exactly falls into the jurisdiction of the ASPC, it’s difficult to tell which of these goals are feasible ambitions and which are merely pre-election rhetoric. In fact, I’m not so sure how many of the candidates know which is which.

The election forums, were strikingly useless as well. As opposed to last spring when speeches were given in the dining halls, this year they were confined to the Blue Room, which held only about 30 people. If this is the only chance to actually hear candidates speak, and less than ten percent of the student body shows up to listen, what does that tell us about the awareness of the electorate when election day comes around? Even a good number of the candidates themselves were absent. Now, does this mean they had dropped out of the race, or just that they had somewhere else they had to be?

Most of the people present at the forum were only there to cheer on their friends anyway. After each speech, more and more people would walk out, having stayed to hear the person they’d come to cheer on. Perhaps that’s what’s most bothersome about Pomona elections. The only races people actually care about are the ones in which their friends are running. I doubt that Pomona students want their student government chosen on the basis of little more than a popularity contest. But with little else to judge competency on, can you blame people when they vote for their friends? It’s probably a more reliable strategy than choosing the person with the coolest name. And yes, I know people who have used this method in previous elections.

When asked about her interest in the elections, one freshman answered that "I care about the elections. I care if my friends win." Most students are so uninformed about what exactly ASPC does, what exactly candidates intend to do if elected, and, even, what exactly a north or south campus senator is, that it’s hard to care about more than voting for your friends.

The Pomona College student body has a great deal of influence on the goings-on here at Pomona. Unfortunately, many students do not know what the jurisdiction of the ASPC is, and thus, are not sure what to listen to in the candidates’ platforms. "People should really get out and vote because otherwise people who are not prepared for the job and won’t take their responsibilities seriously can be elected, and that directly affects student life," said Dru Hilty ’02, this year’s Communications Commissioner. As Pomona students, we need to be both more informed and more involved in the abilities and responsibilities of the ASPC.