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nother election season has come and gone. Our hallways were briefly decorated with 8”x11” posters and ballots were handed out during third hour. As in previous years Student Council has changed membership with very little fanfare.

The application process for candidates is very thorough and intense, according to adviser Sarah Lindenberg, involving an essay, an interview and teacher recommendations. None of the requirements actually involve reaching out to students except through posters. According to Lindenberg, these requirements ensure only candidates who actually care about the position can run.

Unfortunately, this caring is rarely mirrored by the student body. Elections are usually only talked about in terms of whose friends are running, never about what any candidate’s platform is.

Platform is almost an odd word choice here, as candidates do not present their ideas to anyone but the teacher advisers, and the student body is not even made aware of what issues are addressed.

This poses a problem with our elections, seeing as without any other information, they degrade into students voting based solely on recognition, poster quality and popularity. These are not traits that should be the main focus of our Student Council. The available information all but forces students to vote based on these, and in turn the student council and student body suffer.

These problems, though serious, are not insurmountable. It is entirely within the means of the faculty and the Student Council to increase awareness of what the candidates’ ideas are. A candidates’ forum, either over announcements, in the Auditorium or at a pep fest would be an easy and effective way to accomplish this.

Lindenberg said this idea has been considered before by the council advisers, but was rejected. They reasoned that if the event were either before or after school not enough students would come to watch.

The faculty is correct. Such a program would not be well attended, but that can be easily fixed by moving the time from before school to during an hour. It has been demonstrated that this type of event draws attendance without extra work by students or disruption to the school day. Play previews and special performances regularly draw crowds and interrupt the day with few downsides. The forum would work the same way.

A candidates’ forum during the school day, where attendance can be guaranteed, will solve much of the student body’s apathy toward the candidate’s beliefs and help make our elections into true elections, not just popularity contests.