Let’s be honest — it has long been our generation’s responsibility to fix the wrongs of the previous generation, and now, with the United States more polarized than ever, civic engagement and responsibility has to start at the student level for any real change to be enacted.

Every year, the editor in chief of The Collegian sits down to write a letter encouraging the student body and our readership to vote in the upcoming Associated Students of Colorado State University elections. Every year, it feels almost like an ironic plea, asking a campus body that usually has minimal to no awareness of the players, personalities or responsibilities of student government to educate themselves on the importance of casting a vote.

We can reiterate it in these election season letters over and over again: ASCSU manages a budget of $57 million derived from student fees each year. Most likely they fund a club, organization, center or space on campus that you frequent. Their work at the state level advocates for lower tuition costs and greater state resources for CSU students. They represent different voices and perspectives, and if they do their jobs right, their work should impact as many students as they possibly can.

But I know that sometimes such matters fall outside the scope of students’ attention spans, especially when the real-life political climate mirrors something out of a polarized dystopian novel. However, it is the current state of the political reality that calls for increased engagement in ASCSU elections and a more dramatic need than ever to make your voice heard.

And this year, circumstances took a turn for the worse in terms of student engagement, with only a singular speaker of the senate candidate and a pair of candidates for president and vice president dropping out of the race midcampaign season.

Such circumstances only lead to more feelings of helplessness and uncertainty surrounding student government’s adequacy. However, I implore you to engage in this year’s elections, regardless of the number of candidates.

Making your voices heard and communicating and interacting with the candidates for ASCSU leadership is the first and most important step to making sure that your voices, wishes and perspectives are heard on the student level. Engaging in this campaign season is the best way to make sure that the change you want to see is made by ASCSU.

Limited options for president, vice president and speaker of the senate does not mean that student advocacy is not still alive and well. An unprecedented number of student candidates are running for senator roles, turning college council seats into a contentious political race, which is important to consider in the grand scope of student advocacy.

It might feel like ASCSU cannot make a difference, and it might feel like ASCSU sometimes makes too much of a difference with internal fighting, drama and politics. However, as the campus leadership community looks toward its first completely new administration in two years, it is more important than ever to make your decision about what the future of student advocacy should look like.

The political sphere might feel a bit like an echo chamber at the moment, but proper engagement and representation begins at the student level, and holding elected officials accountable for their promises also must begin at the student level, and that starts with public engagement, regardless of the number of candidates up for office.

Here at The Collegian, we pride ourselves on offering a hands-on, real life education experience for all of our reporters, which involves assuming a watchdog role over ASCSU. In the past, this relationship has been contentious and loaded, with senators calling for student media to be defunded and even a professional staff adviser telling me that ASCSU purposefully used to push senate sessions to disrupt The Collegian‘s deadline when we used to print recaps of senate sessions.

It has taken effort from both parties to mend this relationship, and I think both organizations are proud of the place that The Collegian and ASCSU are in today. It is a space of collaboration, cooperation and deep understanding where we serve the same mission — one of civic engagement and campus education — and act as a resource to the over 33,000 Rams who call CSU home.

So as we enter the voting period for this year’s ASCSU elections, I once again implore you, Collegian readers, to engage with your student representatives. I cannot say enough about the power ASCSU wields over your experience and your education at CSU.

In a time of rampant misinformation and distrust in the democratic process, it is important to look toward the future in terms of what kind of civically engaged generation we want to be, and it starts with advocacy and engagement at the student level.

Reach Allie Seibel at news@collegian.com or on social media @allie_seibel_.