Wake up and vote: Your student experience hangs in the balance
By Josie Simon, February 25 2025—
A mere 13.29 per cent of students bothered to vote in last year’s Students’ Union (SU) election. Think about that for a moment. In a supposedly educated community of future leaders, nearly 87 per cent of students couldn’t be bothered to click a few buttons online to have their say in who represents their interests.
While you are too busy to pay attention, you may miss your chance to influence decisions that directly impact your education, your wallet and your daily campus experience.
What your SU actually does for you
The Students’ Legislative Council (SLC) isn’t just some resume-padding club. These 25 elected representatives wield significant power over your university experience. They represent you to faculty administration, university officials and all three levels of government. They vote on critical issues like tuition increases and market modifiers. They establish policies that shape your academic experience, create programs to enhance campus life and advocate for student rights with the university administration.
Every Tuesday, these representatives meet to make decisions that affect you—whether you care enough to notice or not. Your voice should be represented in that room, but when you don’t vote, you silence yourself in these important conversations.
Your apathy has serious consequences
When 87 per cent of students don’t vote, the SU ends up representing only the tiny fraction of the student body that bothered to participate. This creates a dangerous disconnect between what students actually want and what the SU delivers. Your non-participation has real consequences that affect your daily life on campus.
Policies get enacted without adequate student input because the majority remains silent. Your specific faculty’s needs might be overlooked entirely if you and your classmates don’t vote for strong representation. Student fees continue without proper accountability when most students don’t engage with how their money is spent. The university administration sees a divided and disengaged student body they can more easily ignore when negotiating important issues. Critical student services may not reflect what most students actually need because those needs weren’t expressed at the ballot box.
Every time you skip voting, you’re essentially saying, “I don’t care what happens to my tuition dollars” and “I don’t mind if decisions about my education are made without my input.” This passive acceptance has real costs that accumulate over your entire university experience.
Your vote actually matters
In last year’s election, some faculty representatives won their positions by margins of just a few percentage points. With such a low turnout, even a small increase in voter participation could dramatically change election outcomes and the subsequent direction of student advocacy.
Unlike national elections, where you’re one vote among millions, in a campus election where only 13.29 per cent of eligible undergraduates voted last year, your ballot carries significant weight. Your vote and those of your friends could literally change who represents your interests.
This year’s SU election carries extra weight as it coincides with both federal and municipal elections. Your chosen representatives will advocate for you when all levels of government make decisions affecting students—from federal funding and loan policies to local transit and housing initiatives. With so much at stake in 2025, your vote ensures student priorities are heard across multiple election campaigns.
A call to action
The 2025 SU election happens March 4-6. Voting takes less time than ordering your overpriced campus coffee. You can vote online through your myUofC Student Centre or at polling stations in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) building, MacEwan Student Centre, or Science Theatres from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
If you’re satisfied with decisions being made by others while you remain silent, then by all means, continue your apathetic tradition of non-participation. But if you want better representation, more responsive policies and student leaders who actually represent the majority of students, then wake up and vote this March.
This article is a part of our Opinions section and does not necessarily reflect the views of the Gauntlet editorial board.