What do Ed Grimley, Bugs Bunny, Porky the Pig and the Phi Kappa Sigma house dog have in common?

They were all write-ins on the Student Association senator ballots last week. However, SA Vice President John Quilico said none obviously will fill the seats.

These student actions confirm the results of a recent student poll revealing there is a large lack of student interest in the SA.

SA senate election statistics concluded only 4.5 percent of the entire student body voted in last week’s elections, down 0.5 percent from last year’s totals.

“The issue of apathy has to do with students’ perceptions of their interest in whether the SA is doing things that affect their lives,” said Robert Suchner, associate sociology professor.

“When you’re talking about less than 5 percent of a constituency coming out to vote, you’re talking about something more than just general apathy,” Suchner said. “You’re talking about a perception that says student government is not something that individual students are affected by.”

According to the poll, students said they feel they don’t know enough about the SA to want to become involved.

Melissa Kowalski, a senior English major, said she doesn’t think students are aware of what their powers are.

Suchner said students don’t take the time to find out about the SA because they assume the SA will keep things running smoothly.

“If things on campus didn’t get done, you’d have a much more negative environment,” Suchner said. “It has become a burden on a few people to keep it going … as long as it keeps going, it is rational for the other students to not get involved and put in the effort.”

SA Campus Welfare Adviser Greg Leathers said it seems like the few students that do get involved are extremely involved. “But the whole nature of students is to learn, and we’re not just going to learn in the classroom. We learn from other things everyday.”

The SA has become a central vehicle for dealing with student life in DeKalb,” Suchner said. “The uniqueness of it is it extends beyond representing student opinion.”

For example, “before the bus system existed, student life in DeKalb was significantly different,” Suchner said.

“There was no transportation system,” he said. “The students needed one so they created it. If nobody was interested, it would have disappeared a long time ago.”

“I know we’re attempting new methods of outreach to students,” Leathers said. “We want to help make them aware of different rights that they have and the different levels of involvement.”