OUR VIEWS Consensus Opinion

On Tuesday night, David Andersen won the runoff for undergraduate student body president. While next fall may seem far off in these waning days of the semester, there are several key issues that Andersen and next year's Student Government Association should consider making priorities.

One of the most pressing issues is to strengthen the role of the SGA executive committees themselves and the role that students play in the Institute's committees. The student lobby board, for example, needs to build on its success at influencing state policy. The lobby board is just one of the many committees that need to enhance their profile and visibility on campus, both to the student body and the administration. All students should be aware that anyone can join a committee and of the far-reaching impacts of committees' work.

During the campaign, candidates suggested midterm course critiques, a reading day for finals and requiring professors to post grades prior to finals week, all of which are great ideas. However, right now we would simply settle for a "dead" Dead Week. While SGA should explore the other proposals, it's not likely they can be implemented quickly, whereas Dead Week could be improved by the end of the fall. We realize SGA and the administration have worked on improving "Dead Week" repeatedly, but the fact still remains that Dead Week doesn't give most students a chance to prepare for finals because projects, quizzes and even finals take place during that week.

Additionally, there needs to be a marketing push for the online book trade website. With book costs increasing each semester, more students need to utilize this site to cut down on costs. Until adequate advertising is done to make every student aware of the site and its capabilities to save them money, they'll continue to spend exorbitant sums needlessly.

On the student life side, the creation of an online ticketing distribution system for sporting events should become one of the top SGA's priorities for next year, as it was on Andersen's platform. An online ticketing system would eliminate the hassles associated with the current ticketing system for basketball games and encourage more student attendance for other sports.

SGA should work with Auxiliary Services to expand the use of credit cards on campus, particularly at West Side Diner, as well as BuzzCard options in the vending machines in dorms and classroom buildings. It's ridiculous that students have to rely on cash when BuzzCard use could be easily expanded.

We don't expect any of these goals to be accomplished by Andersen alone, but instead by a strong and unified SGA. Next year's committees and chairs need to become driving forces for change, and we hope to see Andersen succeed in picking student leaders who can implement his vision.