As you may know, we are in full swing of the Government of the Student Body election season. This is the time of the year in which students have a direct say in the course their student government takes in the coming year. It would be hard to imagine that over the past year you have not heard some story about GSB, some of which make GSB seem like a bunch of want-to-be politicians. The Rediske-Bauer campaign couldn’t be further from that.

During my four years in GSB, I have seen campaign promises made, only to see them fail in their implementation. When I started to look at the executive slates running this year, the Rediske-Bauer campaign platform stuck out. New and realistic ideas, not just the same old rehashed sound bites that all candidates try to use. New and realistic ideas such as implementing more open forums with students, faculty, and local governments to facilitate direct communication, creating a way for newly formed clubs to acquire capital items, and making the finance process more transparent and easier to understand are just a few of the ideas the Rediske-Bauer campaign has.

The other ticket claims that the single biggest obstacle in the way of success for a united GSB and student body is executive payments. If you believe that a president who is forced to give up an internship because they are required to be in Ames over the summer requires no compensation or a finance director who in is charge of over $2 million does not constitute a full-time job, then that’s fine. But if the ticket that opposes the Rediske-Bauer campaign really wishes to eliminate executive scholarships, then why have they not authored any legislation that would do just that, since they have both had the opportunity as senators? The executive branch has absolutely no power in changing the bylaws in which executive payments are required.

What have Dan Rediske and Zach Bauer done since joining GSB? In this semester alone, Bauer led the charge on implementing the new GSB outreach program, which has already seen positive results since its implementation less than three months ago. Rediske was one of the authors on legislation that for the first time made it a requirement for GSB to have a webmaster with assigned duties to update the website on a regular basis so that the actions of GSB could be more transparent and the process more open for students to voice their opinion. Unfortunately, there is not enough space in this letter to expand on their accomplishments thus far in GSB. I ask you to do a little research on both the slates and talk to those who have worked with all the candidates and you will soon find that the vast majority of those in GSB, as well as outside GSB, who have worked with both sides support Rediske-Bauer.

I encourage you to look past the sound bites. I encourage you to have your voices heard on March 11 and 12. I encourage you to vote Rediske-Bauer for GSB president and vice president.