SALT LAKE CITY – The April 21, 2006 deadline for the first Fair Representation Challenge to Utah's colleges and universities passed without any entries, according to the Libertarian Party of Utah.

As a result, the $1,000 intended to be donated to the general scholarship fund of the winning school remains unawarded this year.

However, the LPUtah's Chairman Rob Latham will ask his party leadership to authorize the award next year.

"Our desire to encourage the use of more competitive and representative electoral systems at Utah colleges and universities remains the same," says Latham.

Last August, the LPUtah notified student body government presidents and legislators of the challenge by letters and email (where available).

Although this is the first time the LPUtah has issued the Fair Representation Challenge, Latham finds the lack of response remarkable.

"Political observers of the next generation of voters may wonder whether the failure of student body leaders to examine the fairness of their elections was the product of the apathy of many young adults toward politics ... or defensive inaction by junior oppressors in training," asks Latham.

"Are Utah's colleges and universities graduating students with critical thinking skills or obedient loyalbots?"

Although columnist George Will warns against "committing sociology" on such occasions, the lack of action on electoral reform at Utah's colleges and universities tracks several other related developments.

For example, although many colleges and universities across the country continue to adopt more competitive and representative methods for their student body elections, trust and interest in partisan politics among young adults is the lowest of all voting age groups.

Last month, Brigham Young University fired a student association adviser after he wrote a letter to the student newspaper asking for more transparency in student elections.

And voter turnout for Utah college and university student body elections remains low.

• The University of Utah's student body had a below-average 12 percent turnout for its recent student government elections.

• Twenty thousand students at Utah State University didn't join the more than 1,750 students who did participate in this year's student government elections.

• And only 18 percent of Southern Utah University's 6,923 students voted for student body president this year.

But according to some Libertarians, voter apathy may not be such a bad thing, especially if it undermines popular support for an increasingly centralized government and its intervention in our lives.

"Perhaps most college students are way ahead of the general public on this one," says Latham.

The Libertarian Party of Utah holds its annual convention on Saturday, April 29, 2006 at 10:00 a.m. at the Salt Lake County Government Center.