Sven Gilkey, Joe Blanchard, Thom Walker. What do these names have in common? First, they're all men. Second, they are the last three ASUAF presidents.

Men have been at the helm of ASUAF since 1999, when the last female president, Jean Richardson, was in office. It was 1997 before that.

The number of female presidents heading ASUAF has been few and far between.

While some may see those numbers as biased, others argue against that claim. At least the last three vice presidents have been female, and the senate has been split about 55 percent, according to current and former senators.

Catherine Wheeler, president from 1996 to 1997, said there wasn't really a large disparity while she was there.

"During the four years I was involved with ASUAF, it was probably 50/50 women [to] men," she said via e-mail.

In Wheeler's days, participation in ASUAF was much higher. She said there were about six candidates for president, and campaigning was competitive.

This year, there is only one candidate for president, Jake Hamburg.

"In truth, yes, there need to be more girls involved," said Sarah Byam, outgoing ASUAF vice president.

She questioned whether there was a general lack of knowledge about elections.

"I'm pretty sure there are plenty of ladies, girls out there who could do it and kick ass," she said.

"Maybe it's because the ones that are involved are so involved that they don't have time," she added. "It's a job."

The vice president is in charge of Club Council and the Tanana Valley Campus roundtable, is the chair of the fall elections board, takes the office of president when the president is gone and organizes other events. This year, Byam organized the blood drive and worked with the Governance Council for Campus.

Danielle Ryder, the only candidate for vice president for next year, said she is running for because the responsibilities are things she likes to do and is familiar with. Her experience with the leadership program, taking classes at TVC, and being on an election appeals board made her want to be vice president rather than president, she said.

Ryder pointed out that none of the women currently in ASUAF are political science majors.

"Political science is seen more as a male perspective," she said.

Byam said that while in high school girls dominated the leadership scene. Club Council, she noted, is split about equally between men and women. She said that in the TVC roundtable, some of the women involved have full-time jobs and families and still manage to be involved, but that not everyone can do it.

"It's hard to get someone to commit to something like that," she said.

Ryder, a program assistant with the Leadership Program, said that women are leaders in other places on campus than ASUAF. She said that most participants in leadership events are women.

Byam pointed out that ASUAF's nominee for student regent, Frances Dashiell, is an example of a woman in a leadership role. Although the governor has to appoint the student regent, being nominated to represent an entire state's worth of students shows faith in her leadership abilities.

Ryder doesn't necessarily think that women are underrepresented.

"What saddens me is that we're not running up against someone," she said.

Only five candidates turned in their petitions to ASUAF to run for next year. Only three are running to fill 10 open senate seats.