Wait, there was an election?

Cedar Falls Mayor Jon Crews was reelected Tuesday with an unofficial tally of 3,805 votes -- 59 percent of all votes cast. While a good few students likely voted on election day, fewer than 100 cast their votes two weeks ago when there was a satellite voting station in Maucker Union. That's less than 2 percent of all votes cast.

While voter apathy is nothing new, especially to the college student demographic, its implications are very clearly far-reaching in this recent race: students' voices are not likely to be a major factor in city council decisions.

During his campaign, Crews was sure to tout his history with and support for this university, work which cannot be denied. He even wrote a letter to the editor to this very publication. However, there was one key word absent from Crews' campaign rhetoric: students.

You see, Crews' challenger, Frank Darrah – the toughest challenger he's seen in some time – didn't overlook that key word, and clearly expressed his intentions to have a University of Northern Iowa student sit on the city council as a nonvoting member, a tremendous step forward that student leaders have been pushing for years now.

Having a student on the city council would improve communication between the city and our student body, allowing our concerns to be voiced and giving us further insight into the city's decisions and actions. It's an important reality in Iowa City and in Ames – why not Cedar Falls?

The lack of student turnout in this election may not be surprising, but it is disappointing: we've lost an opportunity to elect a candidate who explicitly supports students, and we've ensured that campaigning to and listening to students isn't even remotely necessary to be elected.

But not all is lost. We're not trying to say that Crews is a bad mayor – he must be doing something right to be elected 14 times, and we're not saying that he doesn't care about students at all.

And so we, the editorial staff of the Northern Iowan, call on you, Mayor Crews, to show that you care for students. Don't let Darrah's ideas die with his campaign – while you don't need our vote to get elected, students are a major (though often impermanent) part of your constituency. Give us a voice. Do what we've been asking for years now, and work with the city council to bring a student on as a nonvoting member. You have nothing to lose, and a great partnership to gain. Let us work together to make Cedar Falls a great place to be, a place that caters to both permanent residents and those of us who are around for only four great years.

And we call on you, the students of UNI, to learn from this. The caucuses are right around the corner, and if we want to ensure that we have a voice in our national government, we'd better show up in full force, none of this 2 percent nonsense. We blew it this time, folks; make sure we don't mess this up again.