Out from the crowd ...and proud!

The rise of student apathy

I'm procrastinating. What could be more appropriate?

This, however, is a far more serious subject. I mentioned the other day that the Union referenda had their lowest turnout since 2004. I blogged about this in detail here. I want to go into more detail about the wider problem here.

I remember watching the news during April 2005 and a theme running through the news back then was why it was the 18-25 age group who were least likely to vote. I could connect with this as I had only recently turned 18 and really did not want to vote. I had better things to do, such as revising for my upcoming exams and even watching paint dry.

I came up with every excuse I could think of, but there seemed to be something wrong with everything I said.

I could just be 17 again.
Not quite. This is probably the most rediculous excuse I've ever come up with to get out of anything. It lasted less than a day.

I don't get home before 5:30pm on Tuesday.
It would have helped if I got the day right! I still get confused between Tuesday and Thursday. The time, also completely wrong, was just made up on the spot when my friend asked me why I wasn't going to vote. It sounded sensible at the time. I actually did get home on time so this excuse went out of the window after about a week.

Well, I just can't be bothered.
Great excuse but I had to do better if I wanted to spend the next 4 or 5 years bitching about how I didn't like the government.

Actually, I'm not even entitled to vote. I'm only the average guy on the street.
And so is everyone else! For anyone who was wondering, this is where my display name came from. I have never felt so stupid. This excuse lasted all of about 5 minutes (thank goodness).

This is the example I regularly use when it comes to my own apathy. I have been there. I therefore consider myself more than entitled to criticise everyone else. For information, I did vote in the end. I had taken an interest in current affairs by accident (I was trying to get out of doing homework one night), became really involved in the debate and decided I couldn't wait to see the back end of this government.

Back now to the Union referenda. So few people bothered to vote that the motions could not be passed and will be discussed in the next council meeting. I find it hard to believe that most students would rather leave it to 70 or so people (average turnout at a council meeting) in a room, who are not exactly representative of everyone else, than make the most of their one chance to have their say on Union policy and vote.

The jist that I have been getting from most people I have spoken to this week is that nobody cares. It is true that none of the motions were particularly exciting this time but only 1426 people needed to vote (why 1426 as opposed to a more round number, I do not know - it was not me who made the rules).

I am not trying to take the moral high ground here. In fact, I went down with a really bad sickness bug and spent all of referenda week in bed so didn't vote. I get my vote next term though shouldn't really as more people should have voted last week.

Just to add a small point of irony, there was a motion called "Lack of Confidence in the Students' Union" stating that we had no confidence in anything to do with the Union. It included drinks prices, Union events, services provided by the Union, the democratic structures, and such issues as a smoking ban that was passed in a referendum last year only to not be implemented on economic grounds. The irony is that not only was this motion inquorate (not enough people voted) but it also received the least number of votes.

A case of I have no confidence in the Students' Union so I am going to show this by not voting in the referenda.

posted by Average guy on the street @ 7:14 pm