By LEAH WEATHERSBY

North Seattle Community College officials have dropped a controversial plan which would have done away with student government elections in favor of having appointed student representatives.

After NSCC student Skip Knox challenged the legality of the planned changes this fall, school officials decided Jan. 28 to proceed with holding Associated Student Body elections as usual this coming May.

Knox, 59, successfully argued that the school erred last year when it amended the ASBıs Constitution because it did so without allowing students to vote on the proposed changes. The amendments to the Constitution would have eliminated ASB elections in favor of creating a leadership team consisting of hired student body representatives and members of the schoolıs faculty, non-faculty staff and administration.

The student government currently manages an annual budget of more than $500,000, which is used to fund various student activities, including intramural sports and extracurricular events.

Knoxıs crusade to halt the schoolıs plans was aided by a series of articles published in January in NSCCıs student newspaper, The Polaris.

But having retained their right to elect ASB officers, what remains to be seen is how many NSCC students will actually exercise that right in this yearıs upcoming elections.

The school had proposed doing away with ASB elections in response to complaints about the chronically low voter turnouts in previous years. Last yearıs election of student officers only drew 75 vote-casters out of a total enrollment of 8,000 students ‹ a turnout of less than 1 percent.

Low voter turnout has been a problem with Seattleıs other community colleges as well, but NSCC appears to have had the worst.

South Seattle Community College had a voter turnout of about 10 percent last year. Seattle Central Community College had a voter turnout of less than 4 percent in its last student government election a few years ago. Central has since switched to a system of having appointed student body representatives.

Idrus Syed, vice president of communications at Central, said some students complained when the school made the change, but those objections proved short-lived.

Low voter turnout isnıt the only challenge facing the ASB at North Seattle Community College. Itıs also been difficult to get students to run for office.

At present, only two of the ASBıs seven current officers were actually elected to their positions. The others were appointed after some of the officers elected last spring decided not to complete their one-year terms.

Harlow Amsbary, former editor of The Polaris, complains that the current ASB officers do not accurately reflect the makeup of NSCCıs student body in terms of age. The average age of the current officers is 19 years old. Amsbary, 45, said NSCC attracts many older students as well.

³There is a wealth of people on this campus with real world experience,² Amsbary said. ³(But) they have not made an effort to find out what non-traditional students need. I donıt see an effort being made to reach out to older students.²

Knox said he doesnıt hold out much hope that there will be better student participation in ASBıs upcoming elections this year, unless NSCC were to make some changes to its current system, such as providing students with absentee ballots.

³If they do that, they might be able to boost (participation) up,² Knox said. ³Iım confident that the administration will continue to push for the elimination of elections.²