We believe students have failed to sufficiently continue their political involvement, even though the stakes are just as high as before. We have therefore decided to use this space to describe Missouri’s current political outlook for you, in the hopes that you will use this information as a guide to participation.

On Tuesday night, the Congress of the South Forty proposed its budget for the upcoming year. CS40 brings laudable programming to the South Forty every semester, however, as students, we must weigh the benefits of activities we pay for against their costs.

Whereas, on February 10, Student Union Senate supported the formation of the Diversity Affairs Council (DAC) by a vote of 22-2-1;

Whereas, on February 16, Student Union Treasury voted 7-6-1 for the DAC, failing to reach the needed two-thirds majority of members present for approval;

Wash. U. students were once again reminded of the tough economic times in Chancellor Mark Wrighton’s Feb. 8 e-mail, in which he discussed job losses at the University and the still-sagging endowment. The University’s libraries have not been immune to this, so we want to ensure that our libraries remain a focus of the University.

The Washington University English department is one of the best in the country. The graduate program ranks 29th in the world according to U.S. News & World Report. The department brims with exciting personalities and fantastic professors. We all know this, and we appreciate it. But we believe that the University has folded one too many things inside the English department: the creative writing program.

With the recent talk that Subway might soon be moving to the Hilltop Café, we can’t help but wonder what might become of the Umrathskeller (German for Umrath basement). The student body is not without its opinions. Some have asked for another sandwich franchise to compete with Subway’s limited menu.

We at Student Life are giddy at the prospect of something truly rare: a broadly competitive Student Union election. At stake is the SU’s largely discretionary budget, commonly acknowledged to stand at around $2.1 million dollars, which its officials are free to spend as they see fit.

Pick up any newspaper from the past few weeks, and you’ll see its editorial board coming to some very historically worded conclusions about a recent Supreme Court decision. Citizen’s United v. the Federal Election Committee declares that the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA) of 2002, which expressly limits the amount of money corporations can give to political candidates, violates the First Amendment, according to the court.

Washington University semester in review Facebook news feed.

We often crave clarity on University policy, and this clarity is especially necessary when dealing with questions of students’ rights to expression. This became apparent last week when the Young Americans for Liberty constructed and, responding to a request from the University, dismantled a mock Soviet gulag set up as part of a demonstration commemorating the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.