Mechanical engineering senior Taryn Price said she didn’t know enough about the MSU Board of Trustee candidates to make a decision.

Price, who already cast her absentee ballot for today’s election, said she saw the candidates on the ballot, but she didn’t know anything about the race.

“I didn’t even vote on them,” she said. “I don’t know any of them and I don’t even know what they do. I couldn’t make an educated choice.

“So I didn’t think I should bother.”

And, seemingly, Price isn’t alone. More than a few students are in question about what the board does.

The MSU Board of Trustees is the university’s highest governing body. It oversees educational policies and has the authority to control the direction of the university and its expenditures.

The board is made up of eight trustees elected to eight-year, unpaid terms. Two members are selected every two years in a statewide general election.

Running this year are Republicans Connie Binsfeld and Scott Romney and Democrats Cal Rapson and Dorothy Gonzales. Binsfeld is a former lieutenant governor, incumbent Romney is a Detroit-based attorney and son of former Gov. George Romney, Rapson is a Flint-based regional director for the United Auto Workers and Gonzales is an incumbent.

Libertarians Michael H. Miller and Violet Steele and U.S. Taxpayers Party candidate Robert Gale are also listed on the ballot.

But the trustee race is near the bottom of today’s ballot. That means, usually, it’s a race not deemed important for voters.

For MSU students, though, the race will have more of a direct influence on their daily lives than that of the presidential election. Trustees can raise or lower tuition rates, decide who the university’s president is and make decisions on what sports teams should be varsity.

MSU President M. Peter McPherson, who works closely with the board, said voting for the trustee candidate should be considered a student priority.

“The board is very important to the university,” he said. “Students have a perspective, a view about the university and where it’s going, therefore they should vote in the trustee races.”

But Charles McHugh, ASMSU Academic Assembly chairperson, said it’s not unusual for students to be unaware of what the board actually does.

He admits he only knows because of his job in the university’s undergraduate student government.

“The board is not their full-time job,” he said. “They have other businesses and careers to attend to. The board’s got a dual role to play and that doesn’t really allow a lot of time to get out there.”

To aid students who don’t know very much about the board and other statewide races, ASMSU recently published a voter guide that profiles candidates involved in local races.

“There’s not one place that students can go to get in on every candidate that’s impartial - everybody’s partisan,” McHugh said. “So it’s kind of nice for ASMSU to take a step and put out the answers that they give us and not put a spin on it.”

Despite ASMSU’s effort, many students still say they are uninformed about the trustee race. While some students don’t vote because they don’t know the candidates, others don’t get the opportunity.

History sophomore Katy McDonald didn’t get home in time to register to vote in today’s election. But she’s actually glad, because if asked which candidate she’d want elected to MSU’s Board of Trustees, she might not have an answer.

“I cannot vote, not by choice, but by circumstance,” she said. “But I’m also kind of grateful because I don’t know how I would decide.”

McDonald said while she thinks voting for the board is pivotal, she doesn’t have a clue what the governing body actually does.

Still, other students aren’t letting their lack of knowledge get the best of them.

They say they’re just voting straight party tickets.

Business sophomore Mike Murphy said he knows little about the board. But his party will be happy with his ballot-casting today.

“I know that there’s an election coming up but that’s it,” Murphy said last week. “I’ll probably vote Libertarian across the board.”

Some political experts say that’s how many trustee candidates get most of their votes - from people closely affiliated with a certain party.

Other votes rely heavily on the success of a party’s top-draw. If Democrat Al Gore fares well in the presidential election, it’s quite possible low-profile Democrats could be successful.

In turn, if Republican George W. Bush claims mass support, it becomes increasingly likely that bottom-of-the-ticket GOP candidates will triumph.

Some students, however, say they aren’t unaware of what the board does and are taking a strong interest in the race.

Political science senior Amy Sedlar said she doesn’t know a lot about the board, but she is making an effort to learn about the candidates.

“I’m politically active,” she said. “I am very familiar with Scott Romney. He has a good reputation and experience that we need. I agree with his ideology.”

Wanda Lau said casting her ballot for MSU trustee candidates was a vital move. Lau, a civil engineering junior, said she made an effort to learn about the candidates. And she said she was happy to make an informed decision when she voted absentee.

“I knew what I was voting about,” she said. “They’re representing the campus in terms of government.”

Pamela E. Spencer can be reached at spencerp@msu.edu.