In our staff editorial this past Monday, Student Life endorsed Jeff Nelson for the vice president of administration within Student Union because of his energy and absolutely incredible, detailed, tangible ideas for the student body. And I completely agree with that endorsement because of the ideas and the impressive commitment that Nelson has shown to the student body.

But, even though I agree with endorsing Nelson, I’d like to take some time on this election day to praise Colin Towery for his campaign for vice president of administration.

Towery is the only student in the entire student body to run against the “YOU” slate. He is running by himself against an entire slate of people who have set up campaign events and worked out advertising as a slate.

The challenge that he has taken on in running alone against someone who is part of a slate is one that we should recognize as significant and admirable. Towery has set an example for what we should try to find within ourselves: the will to get involved even if it doesn’t seem like the easiest or most natural option.

This doesn’t mean that we have to stand up and run for office in order to follow Towery’s example (although, obviously, that’s a huge service to the student body). Getting involved can be as simple as talking to the people we elect about what we would like to see happen on this campus. These candidates all say they want to sit down with students and help us figure out how we can use the Student Union resources in order to make the changes we’d like to see on campus actually happen. After interviewing some of these candidates as a part of the Student Life endorsement process, I really get the impression that they are serious about this offer.

Our SU candidates are kind of like the professor who holds office hours every week in the hope that someone will show up because he loves his job and wants to take the time to help them accomplish their goals. But, just like some students never make it to office hours for various reasons, a lot of students don’t make it to the SU representatives. Let’s take their offer out for a spin.

I’m sure that if we all sat down, we could come up with at least one change that would make our experience at Wash. U. better. And I’m sure that if we all did this individually we would come up with a lot of great ideas about what we could do as a student body to make the Wash. U. experience better.

If we take sort of an Al Gore approach to making a difference at our school and if we all think of one concrete goal we can accomplish and work on actually doing that, who knows how we could transform the University? We’ve got a resource in our Student Union that can help us to accomplish these goals, so there’s not a significant reason why we aren’t all utilizing that resource and collectively improving the University.

I’ve been inspired enough by Towery’s will and decision to run against a “YOU” slate candidate that I’m willing to promise you that next time an issue comes up that I’m concerned about, I will make the effort to communicate with one of the SU execs about what I can do to make a difference. Join me.

Jill is a junior in Arts & Sciences and a Forum editor. She can be reached via e-mail at [email protected].

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