What is it exactly that CUSU does for us? Before you continue reading, pause and think and do not let the apathy of the past tarnish our perception of the incoming administration.

I spoke to unsuccessful ‘joke candidate’, Milo Edwards, who mounted a satirical campaign for presidency. In the end, he was wiped out by what Edwards himself described as an “engaging” campaign from Priscilla Mensah, who he called an “unusually good candidate for CUSU”. Edwards also pointed out that he gave Mensah his second preference vote, and that he thinks that she will “run the campaign much better than [he] ever could”. Interestingly, he went on to say: “If I’m excluding myself, I think the right person won.”

Yet, despite the fact that Edwards initially started this campaign because he “wanted to be amusing”, there is no doubt that it highlighted student apathy towards CUSU: we just don’t know what exactly it is that CUSU is doing. Their focus on image is to the detriment of communication.

I simply cannot fathom how the representative body of this university has allowed itself to go into hiding. While perhaps unrealistic, at least Leo Kellaway’s attempts to create a unified student body through the creation of an actual students’ union building was a step in the right direction. Imagine casting your vote in the general election, going back home, and never seeing your MP again. More than your MP, however, imagine not knowing where your MP works. Imagine if no one knew either where Parliament was or who was in it. The idea brings the word ‘lunacy’ to mind.

The same applies for CUSU. You simply cannot advertise yourself as a transparent, representative body of the Cambridge student population when very few of the students even know where you work most of the time.

This is the biggest issue with CUSU: not that it is not doing well, but that we simply don’t know how well it is doing.

Edward’s campaign has helped shed light on this apathy. The CUSU elections would not have featured so heavily in the Cambridge press or, indeed, in our minds, had Edwards not launched such a jammy campaign.

Milo Edwards’ campaign failed. Yet for Mensah, a greater success is achievable. Guy Fawkes tried to blow up Parliament, but failed; the then British government capitalised on that to galvanise support – Mensah might want to use this satirical campaign as a springboard to tackle student apathy, here's hoping she can.