Apathy is the lack of enthusiasm or energy, lack of interest in anything, or the absence of motivation to do anything. Apathy is the best word that can be used to describe the group of students who showed up on September 22 and 23, 2004. There were only forty people who voted in the Student Government elections; terrible considering the fact that there are eleven hundred undergraduate students and nineteen hundred graduate students. All together only1.3% of the entire student population voted.I went to meet with Edina Oestreicher. Mrs. Oestreicher was also shocked and bedazzled about the lack of participants at the election. Mrs. Oestreicher stated that mass emails were sent out to the entire student population informing them about the election and where and when it was going to take place. She went on to say that flyers were posted all over campus and during student orientation flyers were distributed in the orientation packages. Mrs. Oestreicher also said that there are positions open and if anyone is interested in filling positions they should speak to her.
Yearning to find out why there was such a lack of school spirit, so much so, that students wouldn’t even vote in an election, I went to the primary source to see what caused this predicament. The responses that I received were a bit shocking-
Caden Rookwood stated, “I didn’t know that it took place”. Dan Wright, a commuter student stated, “Didn’t know what was going down”. Another student Denise Morales, “Didn’t know- it wasn’t advertised enough”. Tongjm Mudgett a.k.a Sanghon, “I would have done it at lunch, but thought it would be at dinner as well, but it wasn’t.”
But what startled me the most was a student named Michael. Michael’s response, “Knew but didn’t care, I’m just a slacker, wouldn’t vote in the Presidential elections so why would I vote in U.B.’s?” Being an African American this came as a slap in the face. Our ancestors fought for the right to vote and to see someone throwing that right out is tragic. I can only hope that in the upcoming Presidential elections the country does not replicate what happened at the University of Bridgeport Student Government elections of 2004.