LSU, meet your new Student Government president and vice president, J Hudson and Dani Borel.The election results won’t be official until April 12, but we’d like to congratulate them for the apparent victory and to everyone who ran a clean campaign season.Our newly elected representatives deserve a short break after a few grueling weeks of campaigning, but we hope they are immediately looking to the future. The issues they will deal with upon assuming office are many and important. We’ve seen innovative ideas from all the platforms this campaign season that would greatly benefit students, and we hope the winners will be gracious enough to consider them.The first and biggest priority has to be budget cuts obviously. It will be their responsibility to be our voice to the state leadership, and it will be their duty to lobby as persuasively as possible to mitigate the damage these cuts will deal to the University and the students they represent.But, while absolutely essential, budget cuts aren’t the only pressing issue facing the campus. We fully expect our new representatives to continue moving the University forward even during these tough times.For example, SG has to find some way to fight widespread voter apathy about its affairs. Only 19 percent of students voted in the primary election, while only 15 percent voted in the runoff — this is a sad, unacceptable state of affairs, and SG needs to be taking concrete steps to make its business something of interest to its constituents.Every candidate runs on a platform of “getting students involved.” We hope J and Dani will take concrete steps to actually do so, allowing our SG to more effectively represent student interests.There’s a common perception SG is just a place to pad your résumé. We don’t believe that’s necessarily true, and we expect our new representatives to change that perception. There’s a reason students don’t vote, and it’s our leadership’s job to prove the value of SG and its relevance to the student body.SG jobs require a great deal of time and effort. We trust those who have been elected are willing to put as much or more effort into their work as they have in campaigning, so they can do the maximum good with their offices.We look forward to see what the new administration and other newly elected officials will to do better the lives of students.But on an unrelated side note, be safe and have a happy Spring Break, LSU.
 
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