[media-credit name=”Aimee Smith” align=”alignright” width=”300″][/media-credit]Weber State University’s grounds are covered with campaign signs. Handbills with candidates’ faces are posted on walls, sticking out of students’ pockets and given away with candy.

Some WSU students said they feel that voting for their student representatives is paramount to the school’s future while others have not yet been swept with political fervor.

According to Anna Adamson who is a microbiology student and also the elections chair, voting for student representatives has a national average of about 5 percent. She said WSU falls into that same average.

Adamson’s job is to make sure candidates are following the campaign guidelines. She and her committee have made computers available so students can vote immediately.

She said voting for student representatives is important because the candidates win based on student votes. She also said this matters because the student representatives are here to serve students.

“They’re located in the [Shepherd] Union Building,” Adamson said. “If you have a problem, you can go to any of them, and they’re going to work to make it better, or at least to get you an explanation of why they can’t change it.”

Adamson said voting numbers are higher so far this year than in the past.

Ashley Brimhall, a student who is currently working on her generals, said she wasn’t interested in the campaigns because she’s not into politics and voting, even though she knows she should be. Brimhall said she figures other people are going to vote.

Brimhall is not alone in her sentiment. Hali Platt is another WSU student who said she shared the same view.

“I kinda figure that everybody else will take care of it,” Platt said. “But I don’t know, I kinda feel like it’s important. I voted.”

Platt said that even though she feels like other students will take care of the election, she feels like her voting has contributed to making a change.

Platt and Brimhall also had in common a hope for the student representatives to remove the feeling of WSU being a commuter school.

“I’m just hoping that the people that I voted for will help make my school experience better and make it more enjoyable than just ‘class and school,'”  Platt said.

Alissa Drummond, who is working on her bachelors of fine arts in graphic design, said she also expects the winning candidates to provide an actual college experience by helping to create a more social college atmosphere.

Though she wasn’t running for student office, Drummond helped some students with their campaigns.

“Everybody should get out and vote just because not a lot of people do vote, so it is a small numbers game, and so last year I know the person that got the Davis VP won by six votes,” Drummond said. “So it’s like every vote does count here.”

Drummond said students need to decide who they think is best for the job and then vote for that candidate.

“I think it’s extremely important because I know in high school it’s all about a popularity contest, and I think in college it needs to be more about what they have to offer and the experience that they had previously because that’s what qualifies someone for a good job,” Drummond said.

Even non-students are getting involved with student politics. Jordan Tryon said he plans on attending WSU in a few years, but he already feels that the current student elections will affect him. Tryon was on campus talking to WSU students to promote one of the candidates.

Tryon said he was out promoting the election because he thinks one candidate in particular will help make the school into the kind of institution he hopes to attend in the coming years.

When asked on how students seemed to react to the campaigning, Tryon said, “I think it really depends on if they actually care about the school or not. If they care if the school’s a good school or not, they’re going to listen to the elections because the student body president actually has a leverage over how the school goes, and he actually has control over the future of the school’s quality.”

JD Germer, who is a current WSU student, was also campaigning with Tryon and commented on how easy voting is.

“Seriously, it takes 30 seconds in this case,” Germer said.