We don’t always have an opportunity to guide the growth of our university. But when we do, we have to siege it with the thought and consideration that we do everything else.
Elections for the Student Government Association began on Tuesday, and will end tonight at midnight. If you’ve voted, you likely picked a friend or a student who posted in a Facebook page. But odds are, you haven’t voted at all.
There are a lot of things to complain about at any school. Bad food in the cafeteria is ubiquitous, limited funds are not just a local problem, and everyone always wishes there were more classes offered at times that fit their schedule. But the one thing we really cannot complain about is our student leaders. This is because we have the ability to choose them.
Sometimes someone gets elected and doesn’t do the things they say they’ll do. But, if you voted without knowing what their plan was, then the fault is as much yours as it is theirs if their time in office was disappointing.
It is important to vote. It is your chance to force change at your school. The great thing about governments that hold elections is that there is the opportunity for revolution every election cycle. If you want a new marijuana policy in the dorms, or better means of communication between students and administrators, then find the candidate that stands with you and vote for them.
The Whit does not endorse candidates for elections. This isn’t the Washington Post, and Rowan isn’t the United States. But at The Whit we’ve made an effort to supply the student population with enough information to make sure voters can cast their ballots based on educated decisions.
Each year offers a new opportunity to elect the most qualified and most representative student leaders possible. But that cannot be accomplished by ignoring our responsibility to cast a vote. Nor can it be done by voting for the guy who handed us a button, or the girl who put up a flyer in the student center. It can only be done by taking the election process seriously, learning about the candidates as much as possible, and forming an opinion which you cannot explain in just one sentence.
