There are 3176 Engineering Undergrads on stream this term. How many of you voted? Take a guess. Ask yourself, did you vote? Then ask the next seven people around you. Surely, one of them voted! That’s right, of 3176 people eligible to vote, ~476 did, a measly, disappointing 15%.
Why does this happen? Why do people fail to vote? I can’t comprehend it, I don’t get it! So I’ve tried my darn best to identify all the possible reasons here:
POINT: People feel EngSoc doesn’t serve or represent them. People assume that EngSoc is composed of a bunch of drunken hooligan students that are up to no good.
COUNTER: The Engineering Society is the strongest and most established group of students that has the ability to make a difference in the direction of our Faculty. Yeah, it can’t change the world with a snap, but EngSoc’s purpose is to know the right people to talk to, in order to instill positive change. ANYONE who has something to say about PDEng should take a heavily active interest in who our VPEd might be! They are the cornerstone of student voice in the entire PDEng renewal process. ANYONE who writes exams should know that the reason you have accommodations for back to back exams are because EngSoc representatives fought to keep them! ANYONE who has filled out a course critique or checked how good a Prof is using the online course critique data repository….guess who runs that? EngSoc! Guess who represents you on the Canadian Engineering landscape? Your EngSoc VPEx! Guess who interacts with the licensing body that you might one day want to get your P.Eng from? EngSoc!
POINT: People assume that EngSoc is all one big ‘clique’
COUNTER: It’s a completely democratic election process that is overseen by FEDS….I don’t see how it’s a clique. If you think it’s all about drinking beer, well you’re plain wrong, as the EngSoc President last term didn’t drink, period.
POINT: People assume that their vote is insignificant
COUNTER: Imagine that if you and four of your friends voted, you would have increased the # of students who voted by an entire percent. If you got your class to vote (assuming ~80 people), the # of people that voted would go up by 17%! You make a difference if you so choose!
POINT: People are too focused on the other aspects of their life to care (academics, extracurricular…)
COUNTER: I can guarantee that something in every UW Engineering Undergrad’s life has been dependant on the smooth and efficient operation of EngSoc … all those things that are keeping you busy…well, EngSoc could help in some way if we vote the best people we have into the right positions. Just look at the exam bank. Imagine if that disappeared? Depending on who we elect, that might just happen.
I dared you to vote in the last Iron Warrior….you clearly didn’t accept my challenge.
Maybe next elections we can break our all time record of ~30%….
You get out of this world what you put in.
RIPdeng
Anonymous: do you know you’re featured as a link in a PDEng 35 topic?