University of Regina students are voting in another election and despite such an important event, there seems to be a lack of buzz around campus.

The general consensus among nine students interviewed is that they didn’t know the students’ union elections were happening March 18-19. They didn’t know where to vote or they just weren’t interested in the elections, although there are numerous posters hanging around the university put up by election-engagement officers hired by the students’ union.

“Not really, no,” said student Michael King when asked if he had heard about the upcoming elections. “I haven’t seen any posters anywhere about it. I don’t think I’ve gotten any e-mails about it over the student webmail.”

King is not alone. Even some of the students who knew about the elections didn’t know many of the candidates or the issues facing the student body. A few students were apprehensive about being interviewed because they felt they didn’t know enough about the election.

Some students weren’t sure where to go vote.

“I might (go vote in the election),” said Faith Jasper, “but I’m not too sure where I’m supposed to do it.”

For students that did know about the election, the issue most brought up was tuition.

“We pay some of the highest tuition in Western Canada,” said Noah Miller. “And I think having some advocacy for that would be the most important issue for me.”

Shawn Wiskar, the current president of the University of Regina Students’ Union, is aware the not a lot of students know about the elections and says ways to improve voter turnout is being reviewed.

“Every year we take a look at the percentage of students voting,” said Wiskar, who is serving his third term as students’ union president.

“We’ve noticed consistently for our general elections it sits around the 10 to 15 per cent mark, so this year that’s one of our big concerns is how are we going to handle the fact the elections aren’t really well known across the campus community other than the row of candidates that hound people to vote for them.”

Wiskar also mentioned that this year the union has hired two election engagement officers whose job it is to get out and promote the election by doing classroom talks, tabling, walking around the university telling people that the election is coming up and giving them information on how and where to vote.

For students who fear they might not know the candidates as well as they should, Wiskar also set their minds at ease.

“The goal is that over the next two weeks the candidates are going to be going around they’re going to be doing classroom talks, they’re going to be tabling and letting the students know who they are so that students can make the most informed choice possible,” Wiskar said.

A few students brought up the timing of the elections, saying that they had no idea about the student elections because they are too stressed about midterm exams to care.

“We kind of have to put them at the end of the year so that we can have that transition time and also allow students who have run and then won the election before they start worrying about the job,” Wiskar said.

Wiskar mentioned that there isn’t a perfect time for the election, but the union does sympathize with the students who are extremely stressed at this time of year.

Wiskar had one final message to encourage students to get out and vote.

“It’s your university and it’s your student union and the executives and the board should reflect what you want out of your student union.”

Polls open March 18 at 12 A.M. and close March 19 at 11:59 P.M. Voting is done via UR self-service. All students are eligible to vote on four executive positions and numerous directors.