This year was probably one of the most successfully publicized Senate elections at DU. With the addition of the D.U.G.S. cookout last Monday, candidates were able to spend time outside, talking to students walking by Sturm.

Regardless of these advances, I had several friends not even know it was election week until the Monday voting began. For me, this is a problem.

If we want more people to be a part of the voting process, advertising should not only be about specific candidates. Maybe Senate could devote more to the actual process of voting rather than the candidates themselves.

This year, it appears that they have taken some serious efforts to do this, and I really hope that in the future they continue this trend.

Senate’s work to get students out to vote amounts to this:

Of the 4,907 undergraduates at DU, 1,183 voted this year for AUSA Senate. This is just under a quarter of the students. Last year, there were only 1,120 votes cast. To help with your math, this is only 63 more votes.

I don’t think this is quite the progress everyone was hoping for.

Instead of waiting until next year to make an effort to get students involved in voting for Senate, the new senators can start this work now.

Voting has ended, and my hope is that this won’t be the last time we see candidates’ names and faces. Senators can start working today to ensure that students are more interested in Senate.

Now that you’ve got our votes, you probably don’t realistically need our support until next year’s election, but please don’t use this as an excuse to not remain involved in the student body. And I mean that on a more personal level. So, it’s not that you’re in a lot of clubs or go to hockey games, but that you talk to people as a senator.

The student body should know who their student leaders are, who their senators are. I think it’s important to know these names throughout the year, not just when votes are needed to get into office.

If students care and actually believe their senators are there to work for them, they will make a more active effort to be involved in the voting process. By keeping students involved in Senate throughout the year, maybe students will be more motivated when it comes time to vote next year.