OUR VIEWS Consensus Opinion

This week, approximately 4,300 undergraduate students voted in the Student Government Association (SGA) undergraduate elections. This number is an impressive increase from last year's voter turnout, which was 900 fewer.

The elections have resulted in the need for a runoff election for the two highest offices, president and executive vice president. Voting in the runoff elections is just as important as voting in the initial elections. In fact, it may be more important; with the pool narrowed down to only two candidates, every vote counts that much more.

Undergraduates should vote in the runoff this Monday through Wednesday. This additional election time should give students a chance to learn more about the candidates and their platforms.

Throughout the campaigning process, most of the candidates have been vocal about wanting student feedback to ensure that SGA is truly representative of the student body. However, there is no reason that students should wait until after the elections to give feedback. If students tell SGA members what they want now, it will keep SGA from having to guess later.

While preparing to vote again, students should keep some important things in mind. For instance, candidates' platforms can often be overly idealistic and unrealistic. Candidates should not promise to walk on water, and voters should not expect them to.

Though it may seem like an obvious consideration, voters should also take candidate experience into account when voting in the runoff. For example, if a position requires running a meeting or working extensively with an executive board, a candidate with experience in a similar capacity would greatly benefit SGA. A competent SGA is a productive SGA.

To truly be productive, whoever is elected to serve next year should also remember that their responsibility is to the students, not the administration. SGA members should convey students' opinions to the administration rather than just relaying messages from the administration to the students.

The graduate elections will also occur at the same time as the undergraduate runoff elections. Graduate students, who are generally less active in SGA than undergraduates, should also vote, especially since one of the candidates is only able to receive write-in votes. Even for uncontested positions, grad students would do well to educate themselves about their future leaders.

In any case, undergraduates and graduates alike need to let their voices be heard by voting between April 16 and 18.