“Get involved.”

Somebody is always encouraging you to get involved in something on a college campus.

Whether it’s a discussion in a class, an RSO or an IM sports team, college students are always pushed to get involved. At the risk of sounding cliché, I’m going to encourage you to get involved.

First, I would encourage every CMU student to submit suggestions for the 2010-11 university budget. Whether you have an idea on how to increase revenue, or an area where you think the university could cut spending, the Senior Staff Budget Advisory Group has asked for your input.

There was plenty of outcry when the new gutters were put up on Warriner Hall, or when the street signs were redone to match the university’s colors so, I’m sure if you think hard enough, you can come up with some way that the university can save some money or bring in some extra revenue. If you are interested in sending in your suggestions, you can do so at https://ssl.cmich.edu/ssbag/feedback.asp. Suggestions are due today.

The second area where students should be getting involved is in local elections. With 328,850 people registering to vote in 2008, there are plenty of new voters who should vote in local elections Tuesday. A lot of these new voters are college students.

Too often, people skip these off-year elections because “they aren’t important enough to worry about.” While they may not receive the media attention that a presidential election gets, local elections are hardly insignificant. Mayors and city councilmembers are the people in charge of the day-to-day city issues.

Most municipalities also have property tax renewals or proposals on the ballot this year. With the economy in the state that it’s in, citizens need to decide what millages are worth being renewed and which are not.

Since local elections often do not receive much, if any, media attention, figuring out who to vote for is a little harder than in other election years. I would encourage every registered voter to do some research. Look online for candidates’ Web sites. Go to city council meetings and listen to the issues being discussed. Attend a “Meet the Candidates” night if your city or township has one.

It is not just your civic duty to vote but to do some research and cast an intelligent vote.

These two things will only take a couple hours of your time at the most, but it could have a major impact on your academic career as well as where you live. So go ahead — get involved.

I promise it will be worth it.

E-mail the author: Nathan Inks