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While the Students’ Association implemented online voting in hopes of increasing voter turnout, the result was only a four per cent increase from last year, coming in at only 10 per cent.

Perhaps this is not a statement that students simply “don’t care” or that they are uninterested in the direction MacEwan is taking, but rather a statement on the structure of student politics.

“Voter turnout doesn’t say anything about MacEwan spirit or culture,” said MacEwan Political Science professor Dr. Gaelan Murphy.

“The fact of the matter is that these elections don’t matter very much and so it is unreasonable to expect a high voter turnout. For that matter I’m not even sure a high voter turnout is desirable since a high voter turnout would be indicative of a highly politicized process. It isn’t a good thing if the student association becomes heavily politicized.”

Murphy specifies that while elections seem to be an integral part of the general university ethic and that we can embrace the de-politicized structure of the university, they do little to indicate a diminished sense of character of the voters and non-voters alike.

“The only time you will see truly high voter turnout in non-compulsory elections is at moments of political crisis—when the voting public is dissatisfied—in which people still have confidence in the efficacy of the vote and how their vote proves relevant. This is a pretty rare occurrence. Thus low voter turnout can also be a positive indicator of the health of an institution because it demonstrates that people are relatively satisfied with the way things are.”

When we look towards the students of the institution, the results are analogous to Murphy’s commentary. Voters of MacEwan seem to realize the significance of the elections—as part of a tradition or otherwise—but fail to see tangible value from their efforts.

Recent Political Science graduate, Shawn Bernard, feels that the institution’s arrangement itself is partially to blame for slumping voting numbers.

“I believe that voter apathy at MacEwan stems from the way the college was and is currently organized. Being essentially (until just recently) a transfer school, the populous has no vested interest in the responsibilities of SA,” argued Bernard.

“While I did vote in every election while I attended MacEwan, I can say with only a few exceptions, that my votes were for the most part random or at the very least based on aesthetics. I did not care, and only voted out of some vague sense of not wanting to viewed as either a hypocrite or disingenuous. I cannot recall a single issue raised which warranted investing any time”.

Murphy said that it comes down to a matter of student responsibility and action that will assure that the voice of the student populous is heard in more ways than by voting.

Voting responsibility is one thing, however, if the student feels detached from the processes of the student government, where does this leave us?

“If someone cares (about student politics) then they should involve themselves at some level in the day to day operations of the university whether it is the Students Association or the Political Science Club, what it is doesn’t matter, just be involved with your community,” Professor Murphy emphasized.

“Voting doesn’t change this calculation at all. Conversely voting apathy doesn’t change it either. Voting doesn’t matter - involvement does.”