Ticket deride

A quick review of the platforms of this year's IU Student Association executive tickets reveals a couple interesting planks -- Red Hot's idea to install countdown screens at bus stops, and Hoosier's idea to subscribe the student body to a digital media at a nominal fee. \nBut mostly the platforms are the same old song and dance of previous campaigns. Yes, dollar taxi cabs and extended hours at the SRSC are good ideas, albeit ones that have never substantially gotten off the ground under previous IUSA administrations.\nNot that we're surprised. We're savvy enough to understand \nelections have to be won first before executives can really begin to serve. Most tickets run on issues to appeal as broad of the student populace as possible, and get the crash course of possibility once they get into office. That's why we'd like to see the campaigns address issues they'll most likely deal with, rather than ones that end up back on the shelf.\nIf current IUSA President Alex Shortle and University Chancellor Ken Gros Louis are right, then this year's IU Student Association election could be the most important since the 1970s. The University has experienced its first massive structural overhaul in 30 years, and student participation in campus governance could be threatened with some of the restructuring.\n"I have certainly heard other administrators say they believe student involvement in campus government is too great," Gros Louis told the IDS Friday.\nPardon us while we take a five-minute laughter break. We've always been under the impression that student involvement in campus governance was embarrassingly modest at best, that IUSA wields a spaghetti sword -- anything but "too great."\nProtecting student status in the inner workings of the University has been the most pressing issue to emerge for the campaign. After all, the intellectual capability of a university community is weakened without student involvement and student perspective. \nThis issue isn't completely ignored by the IUSA tickets, even though their platforms show them as more content to preserve the tradition of drinking than the tradition of student involvement. Hoosier presidential candidate Betsy Henke and Red Hot presidential candidate Lenny Weiss both expressed sentiments, thankfully, supporting credible student involvement. Now we'd like to hear a little more from them about what steps they think are necessary to keep student voices in the same rooms as administrators.\nIf there are administrators who actually believe student governance at IU is "too great," both of the IUSA tickets should be screaming until they've blown out their vocal cords. Just because an issue isn't sexy enough doesn't mean it's unimportant. As our potential student representatives -- the sole defenders of our interests against unfriendly policies -- they should be talking about this now and of their own accord. And if they stay silent and only address it when asked by the media, they deserve to be derided.