Hey Supernova, make me notice you

Our new IU Student Association government was officially announced this week, with the winner being the Supernova party. Thankfully, our election didn't encounter the same problems the presidential election did in Florida, but then again, none of the candidate's brothers were in charge of the ballot counting.\nWhen thinking about our election, I think of the eternal question, "If a keg is tapped at a party and no one comes, is it really tapped?" Or maybe the question had something to do with a tree, I'm not sure. Anyway, if an election takes place on campus and no one really cares about it, did it really take place? I am sure the Supernova party is made up of really nice people and that it has plenty of grand ideas to implement on campus, but the fact remains that not many students care about the elections on campus. About 16 percent of the student body participated in the election, and I'm curious as to how many of that percentage was either a part of a party itself or friends of the parties running in the campaign.\nI'll admit, I knew relatively nothing about the election. My knowledge pertained only to knowing that all the tickets had interesting names and T-shirts (my favorite was the T-shirt that said, "IU needs a miracle"). The one party that I did like, the TOGA party, was eliminated from the election on some weird technicality that didn't make a lot of sense to me. I think they had some really good ideas -- my favorites being the beer tap on the sink and a Hooters restaurant in the Indiana Memorial Union. Once I found out the TOGA party was eliminated from the election, my desire to vote went right out the window.\nI think my apathy is well founded. I have been a student for almost three years here and I can honestly say I know of nothing that IUSA has done for me or my fellow students. So either this is just a real bad public relations job done by our student government or they are pretty useless.\nI heard some mumblings a year ago about putting up clocks in the classrooms here on campus or maybe doing something to eliminate sales tax on textbook sales, but I don't think either ever came about. I know the clock thing didn't because I never have any idea what time it is in any of my classes. Does it strike anyone else as odd that our school doesn't want us to know what time it is? But I digress.\nThe relative inactivity of student government doesn't end there. Back in high school, I don't really remember our student council doing much of anything either. Organizing a yearly food drive, sure, but it was a senior tradition, so that doesn't count. The elections were a big deal back then, too, with posters all over the place -- but no T-shirts or clever ticket names, which is a shame.\nIf anything, at least our elections aren't just a popularity contest. How can they be, when there are thousands of students here on campus? The tickets do a good job of telling us about all the things they aren't going to do, so maybe the vote can be done based on who has the best ideas. In that way it's like our national elections, politicians giving us a whole lot of empty promises.\nI know that I have ranted for a little bit here about IUSA and all, but I understand things might not be as simple as I might think. I'm sure our wonderful university probably doesn't do everything it can to help IUSA do what they want, or maybe their funds are somewhat limited. If there are these problems, why make promises that the candidates know they will not be able to fulfill?\nI think there are two different solutions to the general apathy of the student body toward IUSA. One, we can disband the student government because there is really no point to it; or two, the incoming Supernova party can get out there over the course of the next year and do something to make the students sit up and take notice. I have one year left, so I'll be watching and waiting, Supernova. Show me what you can do, before I lose all faith in government.