Students have from now until 4:30 p.m. on Friday to vote in this week’s Student Government Association elections.

And when they log on to vote.cmich.edu to vote this week, they should choose David Squires and Clarence Richardson to represent SGA in 2007-2008.

All three president and vice president tickets present distinct campaigns, but what puts Squires and Richardson ahead for this editorial board is their experience.

First, they both are seniors, which gives them an advantage because they’ve seen how the university has been run for the past three years. They know what issues matter, and which ones don’t.

Secondly, they also have extensive SGA experience. Squires is in his third year in the Senate, and is chair of the legislative affairs committee. Richardson is in his second year in the House of Representatives.

Both have great knowledge of their respective branch of SGA, which should help in their quest to make SGA a more organized student medium.

A common complaint of SGA over the past few years is how the group spends too much time arguing over petty issues.

Because of this, little is done in a legislative sense, which is a big reason why many students don’t care about SGA.

If SGA isn’t doing anything to help students, then why should they care?

This is a question Squires and Richardson want to see disappear. Both have said a big drawback of SGA is that decisions lack student input. That’s why they’ve made student outreach one of their top goals.

Squires and Richardson said they plan to go out to various registered student organizations and get feedback on important issues before actually bringing issues up for debate at SGA meetings.

This is a great way not only to get more students involved, but also for SGA to come up with better and more agreeable resolutions. Too many times we have seen issues brought forward by SGA, then simply forgotten.

For example, the Board of Trustees approved money in February for the student memorial, an SGA-backed project.

Unfortunately, the student memorial first made it onto SGA’s agenda in 2004. It took three years for it to make an impact.

This shouldn’t happen. If SGA feels as strongly as it says about all these issues that affect students, then they shouldn’t take years to see them through. We feel that Squires and Richardson will do the best job fixing this problem.

We also like the other issues the seniors plan to address next year. We have been behind current president Dan Nowiski’s quest to lower textbook prices, and that is an issue Squires and Richardson have stressed importance for next year.

Making the Student Service Court more flexible to students, expanding mental health service and providing a more detailed student directory are other issues we hope Squires and Richardson can bring to fruition.

The Erves/Davis and Zeig/Dykehouse tickets have some good ideas, and both would make adequate representatives of the student body next school year.

However, we feel Squires and Richardson would be the best choice for students because of their experience in student government and their commitment to student outreach.

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