This week, 37 students will be running for 24 seats in an unusually contested set of Student Union elections. Three constitutional amendments and half the seats in SU Senate and Treasury will be up for a campus-wide online vote. Elections will take place from Tuesday, Nov. 1 at 8 a.m. until Wednesday, Nov. 2 at 5 p.m.

We have a responsibility to maintain the integrity of the First Amendment, to ensure that it is not defiled as an idea. It’s just too bad that we live in the 21st century, in which things are just so tricky.

To outsiders, the credit that is given to the United States Constitution can often seem over-the-top.

It’s 2010 and tri-corner hats might seem like an eccentric fashion choice, unless the wearer happens to be starring in a second grade history pageant. Not so, according to the so-called Tea Party movement, at least in the symbolic sense. This recent grass-roots movement, loosely united by fervor for limited government and original intent, has become a major force of dissent in conservative politics.

Sometimes, business as usual just isn’t good enough. That’s why former Student Union Vice President of Administration Trevor Mattea is proposing constitutional amendments to the SU constitution to eradicate the problems he perceives within SU. Mattea, a junior, served in SU as a senator for a year and a half and an executive for six months.

The men who drafted our Constitution never wanted political parties. In fact, John Adams and his Federalist cronies were decidedly against them.