Associated Students Inc.’s heart is in the right place. The group is our greatest ally in battling against looming fee increases during our state’s ongoing financial ruin. It does its best to fight our battles for us and keep us entertained as well.

But how effective is the organization? Considering a vast majority of students do not participate in the elections, attend the group’s open meetings or even recognize their representatives, common sense would scream that the group is failing.

However, ASI’s fingerprints are all over this campus. The agency is responsible for maintaining the Children’s Center, KSSU radio, the Aquatic Center and PEAK Adventures.

Chances are you have participated in an ASI event or sat next to a board member in one of your classes without even knowing it.

While that doesn’t say a lot about your abilities of observation or deduction, it says even less about ASI’s promotional abilities.

This is not said in an attempt to be callous or cruel to ASI; it’s simply the truth.

Since it is in a position of authority, it’s easy to expect a lot from ASI. Students don’t think twice about sitting back and waiting for everything to just be handed to them. After all, it’s how they usually act in every other aspect of life.

We forget that ASI representatives are students as well. They have to attend to students’ needs while still staying on top of homework, midterms and finals.

On the bright side, members of ASI know they are human.

Andres Perez is the director of Arts and Letters for ASI. In a podcast with The Hornet recorded last week, Perez said that ASI was “misusing” students’ money by having overlapping marketing programs that intend to generate student interest in the organization.

He is not the only ASI board member who feels the group is not operating as efficiently as possible.

Felix Barba, vice president of University Affairs, said in an e-mail to his fellow board members that “we are rushed into approving large amounts of money for projects because we have not planned ahead.”

This should be a topic of significant intrigue among students on campus, but it’s not.

There can only be one reason that the vast majority of students don’t know more about their representatives or ASI itself: They don’t care.

A rational argument could be made that students see Sacramento State as either a safety school, a springboard to a University of California college or a means to an end in the process of getting a college degree. While there are people on campus who are proud of their school, most of the population has trouble regularly attending class and can’t wait to leave.

It’s a sad reality, but it’s the situation ASI has to work with.

With that being said, ASI needs to be working as hard as possible to get students interested in the upcoming election.

It’s ridiculous to suggest that getting students involved in a campus election will solve all our problems, but motivating students to throw their hat into the ring or taking the two minutes to cast their electronic ballots can’t possibly hurt.

Executive Vice President Roberto Torres meets with state legislators and lobbies on our behalf, but he needs your help.

“We can only put so much effort in to fighting fee increases, that’s where we say we need the students to be more involved,” Torres said.

This year can’t be like previous ones, in which multiple positions have no candidates even running, and there are barely enough votes cast to make the election valid.

Getting more than 10 percent, roughly 3,000 students, to vote would be a major achievement.

But they won’t get it. They won’t even come close. I will bet body parts that the voter turnout in the upcoming elections will top out at 8 percent, a generous estimate on my part.

ASI means well. But they have been doing it all alone for far too long. Either you or your parents shell out more than $120 every semester to operate ASI and its programs. Even if you couldn’t care less about campus government or school pride, you should care where your money goes.

Jordan Guinn can be reached at [email protected]