EDITORIAL – SGB elections worth time to vote

Today is election day for the Student Government Board, which means it’s voting day for Pitt… Today is election day for the Student Government Board, which means it’s voting day for Pitt students. Freshmen and super-seniors alike, commuters and residents of the Quad all have a responsibility to take a few minutes and cast their ballots.

Because voting is online this year, we have absolutely no excuse not to vote. There is no need to wait in a long line of students or to hike over to a specific location. Any computer connected to the Internet – this includes the dozens of e-mail kiosks that dot campus – will serve as an adequate voting booth.

How to cast a vote? Log on to my.pitt.edu, and go to the SGB Elections tab. All candidates have posted information on their goals and platforms, along with photographs of themselves. Voting itself is relatively self-explanatory, but there are step-by-step instructions on hand for anyone who gets confused.

There’s also information on the candidates in this issue of The Pitt News, starting on page 11, for those who prefer to read up on their options in print.

The process of voting itself is easy. For some, though, a question remains: Why vote? Again, a simple answer. SGB is designed to serve the student body, and works to create programs that will interest large swaths of the campus. Members of fraternities and sororities have traditionally been a big voting bloc, but students don’t need to be Greek to take an interest and vote.

Perhaps more importantly, SGB hands out money collected from each and every student’s tuition; any student concerned about how his activities fee is being spent or who is dissatisfied with the current running of SGB has an obligation to choose a candidate he trusts to lead the board. On the flip side, students who have been pleased with SGB over the past year would do well to cast votes toward re-electing those board members they support.

Even seniors, who may be looking ahead to bigger and better things than college, ought to take a few minutes and vote. Who wouldn’t want to do his part to ensure that the University functions at an optimal level, and that those friends and classmates who have a bit longer to wait until graduation attend a school with a governing board they can be proud of? Being on the fast track to alumni status does not exempt anyone from caring about their alma mater.

The Pitt News has chosen not to endorse any specific candidates this year; throughout the campaigning, the election and the switch from old board to new, our primary concern has been, and will be, maintaining an objective position from which to cover events.

Rather than choose a candidate, we are endorsing the act of voting itself; elections exist for a reason, and that reason is for people to choose their leaders. Choose wisely.