The Lantern’s decision on which Undergraduate Student Government presidential-vice presidential team to endorse was a difficult one. All five teams were critical of the lack of communication between USG and students. They all had good ideas for USG initiatives, such as handling USG’s communication, visibility and accountability and other concerns of Ohio State students, such as lowering tuition and increasing diversity.

Ultimately, we felt we had two choices. Should we choose a team that would get things done best in the current USG environment, or a team that would change that environment? We decided we wanted the environment to change and, in a 3-2 vote, the editorial board felt that Liz Ghandakly and Dave Knapp had a slight edge over Tariq Seifullah and Malik Seifullah in making that change happen.

Ghandakly and Knapp have an ambitious 30-page platform dealing with many important OSU issues. On a broad level, they seek to make USG’s operations more transparent, to build bridges between the off- and on-campus student communities, to increase the quality of student life and to restructure the USG cabinet system with new committees and responsibilities. Their main goals are to improve the quality and decrease the cost of meal plans, provide wireless Internet to residence halls and libraries and create a college student lobbying organization, the National Organization of College Students.

It will be tough to accomplish many of their goals, but we think if anyone can accomplish the wholesale change of USG we desire, it is them. Ghandakly, who ran for president in 2004, said she spent much of the last year researching and developing both this platform and ways to achieve their goals. Although it is uncertain whether all these goals will be reached, the fact remains that if they are successful in achieving half or even a fourth of these goals, they will have succeeded above and beyond what the usual USG president and vice president normally accomplish in a term. We whole-heartedly support their initiative in meeting students throughout the year in town hall meetings, having office hours for officers responsible for USG policy, attempting to convince OSU Campus Dining Services to refund the rest of unused meals at the end of each quarter and providing voter registration on residence hall check-in day.

The Seifullahs bring a great deal of energy and idealism to their campaign and their desire to change the way USG runs. They come from a diverse and well-traveled background and understand the importance of diversity. They are passionate about bringing together people with varying viewpoints to speak about their differences. They have done their research on the issues and they desire activism. One of their main goals is to bring together students – and students’ parents, guardians and families – from all Ohio universities to rally for a one-year tuition freeze, and to boycott purchasing books from bookstores because of rising textbook costs. They also suggested USG meetings should resemble traditonal town hall meetings and be held in more student-accessible buildings such as Independence and Hitchcock halls. Students should be able to sign up at the beginning of the meeting to speak briefly about their concerns after the business of the meeting is held in an effort to encourage more dialogue between USG and its constituents. The Seifullahs have good ideas and motivation on their side; we just are not sure if they are organized enough to achieve their goals.

The way USG works now, Suzanne Scharer and Matt Kreiner would be the best choice, but we desire more than a return to the status quo of past USG presidents. As the current chief of staff for USG President Aftab Pureval, Scharer has the most knowledge of how USG works. Most of Scharer and Kreiner’s ideas for USG changes, such as reorganizing their executive cabinet, increasing student communication through event postings and newsletters on USG’s Web site and expanding Welcome Week to include more second- and third-year students, do little to actually change the fundamental way USG is run.

Logan Margulies and Tony Gross said they want to distance themselves from previous administrations, but presented few ideas on how to accomplish their goals without resorting to USG business as usual. They suggested consolidating poorly attended student events, with the idea of using these larger, more entertaining events to get students interested in more serious issues. However, it is hard for us to believe this method will get more students interested in lobbying against tuition increases, especially given the candidates’ belief that lobbying the government on tuition would be unsuccessful.

Joshua Gates and Jamie Wallace offer some experience and good ideas, such as student events geared toward bringing the regional campuses closer to the main branch, biquarterly polls of students’ concerns and putting a student activities calendar on USG’s Web site. However, their suggestion that USG add a house of representatives populated by student organization leaders would bring unnecessary confusion and bureaucracy to USG, without any idea who would be eligible or what they woul specifically do .

It’s going to take a colossal effort, but we think the effort spent in dreaming up such a comprehensive platform suggests that Ghandakly and Knapp will be successful in achieving many of their goals and changing the face of USG.