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A vote for fire and water

Though on-campus students may be residents of the town of Vestal, we only live in Vestal insofar as we spend our money along Vestal Parkway.

Elected Vestal politicians vie for the coveted votes of students on the Binghamton University campus each November. NYPIRG holds a massive voter registration campaign confronting students in the lecture halls and as they go off to eat in the dining halls. Vote in your community, they say. We are residents of Vestal and therefore we should participate in Vestal elections.

Just because we have the legal right to vote, does not mean that we should vote blindly and because someone else told us to. A vote is a tool, a privilege that is awarded to us. We should therefore be educated voters, voting because we have a position to support or oppose.

This is not to say that we should not exercise our right to vote, but consider this question. While researching an article on voter turnout we asked several sources about how the political power of reelected Vestal town supervisor Anndrea Starzak directly relates to Binghamton University students living on campus.

William Lee, former president of the College Democrats (he resigned unexpectedly on Thursday), hesitated at an answer two weeks ago when asked to name one thing that Starzak has done in the past year that directly impacted students on this campus.

Outside of an appearance she made at a rally for the unionization of Sodexho workers earlier this semester, she is virtually invisible and unknown to the average student. The most substantive reply we have received to this probing question is that the Vestal Town Board controls our fire and water and, according to a recent Student Assembly resolution, has the power to change our on-campus polling location.

Out of an estimated 1,300 students who are registered to vote on this campus, only 10 percent actually voted in this election. So why this argument? Three student groups are currently involved in a campaign to lobby Vestal to move our on-campus polling sites to a more centralized location in order to encourage students to vote.

Right now we vote in election districts 24, 25, 26 and 27 which divide the campus community. These districts vote in either the Newing Library or the College-in-the-Woods Commons. Moving to a location like the Mandela room is not in the best interest of the students. This is in the best interest of Starzak and her fellow democrats who are traditionally the underdogs in Vestal politics. Numbers show that the campus population is significantly more democratic than the surrounding community. Having more students vote on campus almost guarantees an increase in votes for the democratic candidate. Also, the more students that are registered to vote in Vestal, the more residents Vestal can claim to the state, the greater the funding.

The reasons why we are being told to vote in Vestal are unsubstantiated. Just because we spend our money in Vestal does not mean that we should be influencing elections that do not pertain to us. Students do not have a position on Vestal property taxes or traffic patterns in residential areas in which we cannot afford to live.

If we really want to have democratic control over the powers that be, we should rather look into those who really have political control over our community, characters like BU President Lois B. DeFleur and head of Residential Life, Chuck Lamb. Pop in on VP of Student Affairs Roger Summers and see what he is up to.

To those students who so passionately voted because you believe that Starzack and other local officials are critical to on-campus student life, try writing letters about the housing crisis on campus. Lobby the Vestal Town Board to alleviate our parking problems. Tell Starzack that you did not come to college to be housed in a triple.

But if you want to vote for someone who will make a difference on campus (well theoretically anyway) then channel your energy into getting students interested voting in campus politics. Vote for student leaders who will actively lobby the administration for issues that are important to students and will focus on our campus.

Vestal may control our fire and water but Binghamton University controls the roof over our heads and the food in our mouths.