Well kids, it’s the last Tuesday column from yours truly. Don’t worry, though, you won’t have to put up with some sappy “goodbye, it’s been fun” column.

This will be a “wake up and smell the coffee, NIU students” column. Before you all take off for the summer, you’d better give some thought to this town.

What? Who cares? It’s just DeKalb and it’s not going anywhere, right? Hell, it’ll be here when you come back in August, right?

Sure, DeKalb will be here, but things will probably be a little different. Different how, you might ask?

Remember that little thing called an election which took place earlier this month? Well the DeKalb City Council was not too happy with voter turnout in the NIU student wards. The council now has decided to look into the possibility of remapping the wards.

That remapping would substantially reduce the student representation on the council and create two “at-large” seats. A city-wide vote would be utilized in order to fill those seats. Such a vote would almost guarantee those seats would be filled by DeKalb residents rather than NIU students.

Last week this column poked fun at the council and this latest development, but further research revealed the finger was pointed in the wrong direction. The city council is doing the most reasonable thing considering NIU students really don’t seem to give a damn about what happens around here.

Three wards, the 1st, 6th and 7th are predominantly student wards. Of all the wards in DeKalb, those three wards have the lowest number of registered voters. Of course that’s not surprising, since a lot of students are registered to vote in their home towns. However, of those registered to vote in those wards, only about five percent actually voted as compared to the overall 23 percent who turned out to vote in DeKalb.

Five percent! That’s pathetic! Why would you even bother to register? Remember folks, countless college students fought tooth and nail back in the late 60s and early 70s to reduce the legal voting age from 21 to 18. Voting should be considered a privilege, not an inconvenience!

There is a chance to redeem yourselves, however. In order to implement a program to remap the wards, it has to be put to a referendum. No plan has been started yet, but students registered to vote in DeKalb should be ready for some sort of a vote within the coming year.

Fourth Ward Ald. Rita Tewksbury was quoted as saying NIU students don’t care so it will probably pass easily. Sounds like a challenge doesn’t it? Well, let’s take it as one and prove her wrong.

Do well on finals, have a great summer and come back in the fall ready to show the DeKalb City Council NIU students do care what happens around here.

Now for some closing comments and acknowledgements (no top ten lists though):

TV-8, thanks for a great softball game. Maybe next time, huh?

Calvin and Hobbes look out! Here comes Bob McBob!

Sox fans, thanks for the laughs.

And for the last time, BE GOOD!