By next fall, students might be able to enjoy extra days of drinking late and sleeping in thanks to the Undergraduate Student Government (USG) and Academic Assembly.

USG and Academic Assembly have recently proposed to give students an excused absence from class if they participate in local, state and national election days. According to their joint resolution, class schedules make it difficult for students to participate in civic action and are recommending that the University Faculty Senate consider any participation with political elections a university-excused absence.

While there is a lack of volunteers in election campaigns and voting polls, other actions need to be taken instead of a day off. An excused absence for helping out with elections would just be a day off for many, which would most probably result in drinking late or sleeping in late.

The resolution does specify that students must provide cited documentation from campaign and election officials to get the excused absence. However, volunteer hours are usually not that long since you are working without pay. Therefore, the average student mentality will consist of, "Hey, I will drink all night, roll out of bed at 10 a.m., drag myself to the polls and just stand there while I recover from my hangover. Then I'll head out to the bars at 2 p.m. and never have to go to class." A three-hour shift of volunteer service is better than a 9:45 a.m. to 2:15 p.m. class schedule.

The assembly's initiative to get more students involved with politics and local issues is a good one. But they need to realize that students will be doing it for the wrong reasons. Some people think that as long as students help out in some way they might become more interested and involved in the community. Except that it won't.

Volunteering for elections will not erase student apathy, especially if they are doing it as an excuse for missing class. Students are apathetic about politics and their communities because politicians don't care about our generation, and they don't make any efforts to appeal to younger people.

Political campaigns and organizations should be the ones encouraging students to participate in election days. But the only way they can do this is to make their campaigns and platforms appealing to the "apathetic population."

The assembly should focus on getting political organizations on campus to reach out to more students and encourage them to become politically involved.

Once students care about political issues they will most likely want to contribute to the election process. Just giving them a day off won't.