[photo: current SU execs.  from top to bottom: grant, jeff, yewande, neha, and brittany]

It’s time for Student Union Senate elections!

In the past, there has been some controversy over these elections, because often, available SU seats go unchallenged. For instance, last year, the current SU Exec slate ran unchallenged (with the exception of the VP Admin slot, which J. Nelson won with a landslide of votes). Everyone wants to complain about SU, but no one seems to want to do anything about it. Why?

Well, this writer happens to think that there are a lot of reasons why a WU student wouldn’t want to be a Senator. Those reasons, however, can also be reasons why someone *would* want to join Student Union.

Senate is a year-long commitment, and involvement in this student group would probably have to be your main focus outside of your studies. You have to work on a special project, and you have to be on one of three committees (Academic Affairs, Campus Services, or University Initiatives).  Senate meets once a week for about an hour and a half, and then committees also meet once a week.

Becoming a Student Union Senator, besides looking good on a resume, is a great way to impact the Washington University experience – for yourself, your peers, and all WU students to come after you. Some recent developments about which Senate likes to brag: improvement of late-night transportation to off-campus apartments (bravo!), surveying the student body to see what foods should be served at the DUC (we all need to eat), and “eliminating” the Residential Technology Fee (isn’t it just included in room and board now?). Some ideas for future projects: eliminating or reducing the laundry fees, not having students pay Health Services $15 to get an ibuprofen but no real help, and actually implementing a real, usable all-school calendar (which we currently don’t have).

If you want to make some changes around campus, now is the time! Oh, me? I’ll be here, complaining behind the safety and warmth of my computer and the internet. I’m too busy to run for anything.

If you want to run, here are some important deadlines:
Monday (Oct 27th) – election packets due
Tuesday (Oct 28th) – candidate meeting
Campaign Period – starts immediately after candidate meeting; ends November 4th 2008 (you;ll be busy voting anyway)
SU elections – November 5th and 6th on WebStac