Illustration by Mike Padilla

Just before spring break, student leaders celebrated the overall success of the ASUA elections that named Cade Bernsen the new president of UA student government. While no election is without its bumpy moments, election officials were particularly excited about the 4,452 students that voted. This was the highest number in recent years, and those involved took it as a sign that students are becoming more engaged in student government.

Of course, the more cynical observer can't help but notice that more than 80 percent of students didn't participate. At first, this makes the celebration of the high turnout seem a little strange, especially seeing as in November's actual presidential election, more than half of voters went to the polls. Does this mean that the 4,000 votes garnered by this year's slate of Associated Students of the University of Arizona candidates were actually dismal failures? Not at all.

The problem with comparing the ASUA elections to the general elections is the same problem you run across every time you try to compare apples and oranges. While the ASUA president and the president of the United States share a title, President Bush has something that Mr. Bernsen will never have: significant authority over the people who vote for him.

Matt Gray Columnist

Whether we agree with him or not, no one can deny that President Bush makes decisions every day that have a major impact on our lives. The U.S. military, the most powerful fighting force in the history of the world, theoretically represents each of us as members of the democracy that it represents. However, if any of the rest of us orders a pre-emptive war against a state that can't possibly defend itself, our military isn't going to respond with much more than a laugh. Instead, President Bush decides for all of us whom we will be attacking and whom we will not.

The president's authority doesn't end with this power either. It's almost impossible for Congress to pass a law without him, and it never hurts to have the FBI and CIA at your disposal. While it's still kind of sad that only about half of Americans cared enough to help choose the most powerful man in the world, it's easy to see why the hundreds of millions who participated got involved.

The same simply isn't true for the head of ASUA. Instead of deciding which program to fund, or which nation to attack, the ASUA president has weighty responsibilities like creating committees and acting as a spokesman. This isn't to say that the members of ASUA don't perform a valuable service for their fellow students, they certainly do. However, because the ASUA president doesn't have any real authority over UA students, it's not surprising that most students are indifferent to who gets the job. Mr. Bernsen will certainly be one of the most effective lobbyists for students in Arizona next year. It's just hard to get people excited to vote for a lobbyist.

If university officials or state legislators wanted to cultivate true democratic processes on the UA campus, it would be easy to do. If the state and university leaders gave student leaders some actual power, then you'd see student participation go through the roof. If the ASUA president had any actual control over tuition rates or faculty retention, then the position would carry real authority, and as a result, would matter to students. Imagine how much more involved students would be if they were electing the board of regents instead of the ASUA president.

Of course state and university leaders will never give student leaders that kind of authority because they have no reason to believe that the students would take the school in the right direction. If the ASUA president had any real tuition authority, then campaigning on a tuition increase would be even harder than campaigning on a tax increase is for actual politicians. Tuition would never increase, would most likely be cut and university programs would suffer the consequences.

So maybe putting the students in charge of the university would be a bad idea. Perhaps it's better to put the ASUA president in charge of concerts instead of important university functions. Yet if that's true, no one should be surprised that students don't show much interest in ASUA elections. Unless the students are given the opportunity to choose a real leader, we shouldn't expect them to vote for the ASUA president the same way they do for the president of the United States.

Matt Gray is a second-year law student. He can be reached at letters@wildcat.arizona.edu.