OUR OPINION:  Students need to pick the best candidates for these positions.

Student Government elections and today’s choices will serve as a foundation for 2009-10.We believe Adam Cloninger would be the best candidate for student body president.He understands the logistics of SG and has experience in the organization. He also is concerned with students and was the candidate who was the most willing to be approachable to students by having a transparent schedule.Cloninger was also the only candidate who spoke about the economy in depth. This shows that he understands the current situation and will be the most prepared to deal with dire economic situations.Cloninger also has realistic, smaller platform goals than the other candidates, though they could have been more in depth. Jim Ceresnak’s platform was the most student-centered, but he lacks the necessary involvement in SG and other student organizations that other candidates have.Anup Engineer’s platform consists of goals that should not be priorities, but it was obvious that he had student input when he created his platform. He said he would be able to fulfill the goals of his platform even if he was not elected, which showed us that he could still benefit the University if he was not elected.Andrew Swanson genuinely cares about students and how to improve student experience, but he had no concrete platform and did not have set goals. Swansondoes not have any leadership experience.Amber Joyner has the most experience in SG out of any of the candidates, but we weredisappointed that she did not use this to her benefit. She was not as present to students while campaigning as we would have expected her to be.Kornelius Bascombe is charismatic, but he is a sophomore and could use another year to understand the campus more before he takes on a position with such a heavy load. Bascombe is also the only candidate for student body president who has had campaignviolations filed against him this year.Although all candidates have some aspects of an effective leader, we were underwhelmed with the performance of these candidates so far who did not campaign as hard as previous years.For student chief justice, a position that has lacked consistent leadership in past years and is in need of a present, dedicated leader, Timur Ender would be the best candidate because he has the experience and has shown leadership to be student chief justice.He has assisted current Chief Justice Lock Whiteside in his duties this year.Mary Frances Woods has great ideas for recruiting but needs to have a more solid platform.And the Student Centers president is essential in having good communication between administration and student organizations.Marycobb Randall is our pick for Student Centers president, as she has had much experience working in different organizations and had a cohesive plan with set guidelines. She is also concerned with educating students about the organization andrecruiting future leaders.We see great potential in Matt Woodward, but he is a freshman. He has three years ahead of him and needs more experience to take on the position of student centers president.Several positions this year are uncontested, and this shows a lack of initiative in SG members. Next year’s leaders should work hard to recruit future leaders.We hope all of the winners collaborate with other candidates to come up with the best goals, because every candidate for each position had redeemable characteristicsand aspects of their platforms. Cloninger should focus on students like Ceresnak, make improving the student experience a priority like Sawnson, get student input like Engineer, have a detailed platform like Joyner and be an effective communicator likeBascombe.Also, in this election, students should vote in favor for the Agromeck and Student Media fee referedums.