JUST A THOUGHT COLUMN: SGA election serious for some
By Nate Bloomquist
Apache Editor
Ottawa Marquette graduate Will Cuffe reacted to his loss in the Student Government association presidential race the way he reacts to almost everything else in life -- he laughed.
Cuffe didn't take the election all that seriously anyway. And no one else seemed to either.
He lost to Putnam County graduate Ben Hartenbower 190-81. Write-in candidate Kevin LaFollette had 50 votes.
"It's more of a popularity contest than anything," says Cuffe. "I don't think anyone really cared."
And the numbers agree. Only 364 people voted in this year's election, only one in about 10 students voted for someone who represents the entire student body. No one ven ran for the vice president. Billy Terry won via a write-in campaign but declined and runner-up Dawn Bumgarner accepted.
Cuffe's campaign could be called a joke and he wouldn't have an objection. His campaign posters and slogans were comical. In a presidential race that resembled a gimmick battle royale, his concept was to wear a jesters hat.
"I got the idea from the motley fools," says Cuffe. "I figured my slogan was i"ll look a fool so you don't have to."
Hartenbower took a more serious approach. He used posters with him looking 'presidential' in front of an American flag and another with him posing in front of a sports car with the words, "This is NOT Ben's car." On election day he wore a shirt proclaiming 'Vote For Ben,' passed out pens and urged passers-by to follow his T-shirt's advice.
Although Hartenbower was more serious, did it matter? Most don't consider the student government president to be a serious job.
What exactly does the president do? Not much, some say. What difference does it make who the SGA president is? Hartenbower admits that most students his age are at IVCC to go to class, get out and move on to the 'real world' without any extracurricular activity.
Where would he make a difference? Hartenbower says the answer is clear.
"I think it does matter," he says. "You need a president that is involved, someone who is active. What the student government does affects the students.
In her one year in office, Angela Brown worked to bring more activities to the college and looked into the possibility of adding an ATM to the campus lobby. While she succeeded in making a few more activities available to students, few take advantage of them.
"That's something I want to work on," says Hartenbower, a three-time class president while at PCHS.
"We want to see what types of things students are interested in getting involved in and how we can go about promoting them to get more students interested."
The president is also a figurehead of sorts. Hartenbower will represent IVCC at various conferences and meetings throughout the state. So Hartenbower's job is one of importance. He's also a link from the students to the IVCC school board, something he feels a lot of students don't realize.
"The student givernment office is open to anyone who wants to talk to us about something," he says.
Add human suggestion box to his job description.
Hartenbower says he wants to get involved and wants others to follow his lead. It's something he takes seriously. It's too bad the rest of the student body doesn't take him or anyone else who's running for president as serious.