Pan out or go home

Nine thousand and sixty-seven have spoken. \nAnd, apparently, students are thirsty for what Big Red has to offer. \nThe polls have closed, and Katie Diggins, Angel Rivera, Meagan Merrill and Jason Sondhi will be serving students from the IU Student Association office this fall. \nWe congratulate the Big Red ticket for its successful campaign, and we hope it will approach the upcoming year with the goals it has shared with students in mind. \nThe priority that always dominates the top of the list is money. In an article in the Indiana Daily Student (Feb. 18), Rivera vowed to lobby the statehouse in order to freeze tuition rates and also said his administration would send an IUSA representative to the Bloomington Council and the IU board of trustees to encourage an efficient use of IU's budget. \n We support these efforts of communication and feel IU's representation on a state level is important to our financial well-being. In addition to involving themselves with matters of tuition, we would also like to suggest that the new IUSA administration address the mounting problem of student fees. As students already face $400 in these charges with the danger of more on the way (IDS, Feb. 25), this too is an important issue behind financial strain. \n Parking is another omni-present topic of debate, and Diggins has mentioned her administration's intention to help IU realize plans for parking garages near Teter Quad and the Main Library (IDS, Feb. 17). The IU board of trustees already has a plan in the works toward this end, so it shouldn't require too much help. But as IUSA ensures these long-term initiatives carry on, we hope it will also explore more immediate projects to help students avoid accumulating excess parking fines.\nOf course, if students heard nothing else about Big Red's campaign, it was the ticket's proposition to bring our already "moist" campus closer to wet. (A federal definition of "wet" provides that the school have a bar on campus, which, Diggins said in the Feb. 4 IDS, her ticket did not advocate.) This certainly piqued student attention, but it later sparked questions as to whether or not IUSA is even capable of influencing legislated alcohol policies.\n"We're not saying 'Let's have all-out drinking on campus,'" Diggins also said in the article. "But let's admit that it happens, so we can have some reasonable guidelines."\nThat we can agree with. If the IUSA administration is going to address alcohol as policy, it should do so with the intention to keep students safe, not to excite them with more lenient regulations. \nAbove all else, we ask the new administration to make its decisions in the upcoming semesters with all students in mind. The executives have an incredible budget at their disposal, and we advise them to spend it wisely. Finance plans that will benefit as many people as possible, and pass on proposals that only enlighten a relative few. You have the power and opportunity to make our education better. We hope you'll take it.