From the amount of student interest on campus about Undergraduate Student Government (USG), it's hard to tell that elections are less than a week away.

At Monday's meeting, where candidates explained their goals, only 10 audience members said they were unrelated to a campaign. That's fewer than the number of presidential and vice-presidential candidates in the election.

And it's not only the lack of attendance that leads one to this conclusion. Penn State's campus and State College are seemingly devoid of in-your-face ads screaming support for one candidate or another. Numerous banners aren't hanging from Beaver Canyon windows. Catch phrases by the tickets aren't every-day knowledge. In short, there is definitely something wrong. Foremost, it is the responsibility of the election commission to reform the system so that the next time around, meeting agendas get devoted to why no one cares about the process they are overseeing, rather than who put what fliers where. The election violation that was brought up on Monday is such an example. USG members spent too much time -- even if it was only minutes -- dabbling over an alleged violation by presidential candidates Robert Dinkelspiel and Joseph Budd. The duo pleaded no contest to a rule that states campaigns may not post fliers within 10 feet of a Penn State computer lab.

Instead of being forced to waste time on minute concerns like these, campaigners should spend time standing on the street, talking to their fellow students. Those running in the election should make students care by discussing legitimate issues.

And by showing how those issues will affect students directly.

Students continually voice concerns about how USG doesn't do anything besides meaningless bickering at meetings. But rarely do they ever actually voice these concerns to members of USG.

This means at least some students should show up at meetings, such as the one that was held on Monday, to speak out about issues that really matter to them. Then maybe campaigners would have something to campaign about.

Students should care for a lot of reasons. But if anything, they should care because they will literally be paying for their own mistakes if they don't.

It's really in the best interests of students to be educated about USG because part of our tuition goes to funding the tuition of the USG president and vice president. Remember that mistakes could have long-term effects.

Meanwhile, USG members should perform their role to voice campaign goals of substance and give students a real reason to vote and pay attention.