In the current Government of the Student Body presidential race, two campaigns with two different messages and two different backgrounds are vying for the responsibility of casting a voice to real student concerns. In the two debates, both sides have delivered a number of lofty goals and each has claimed to put the students’ interest first. While it is difficult to question or doubt the sincerity of the two candidates, the legitimacy of each is apparent.

Ryan Crampton and Jeff Edwards promise a concert on the scale of Veishea to kick off the weekend before school. Having worked on GSB and having dealt with the reality of financial distribution, Daniel Fischer and Maggie Luttrell understand the huge amount Veishea spends on entertainment every year. I personally don’t see the necessity in the concert. With GSB accounts for student appreciation being capped at $6,000 for the whole year, the likelihood of Crampton and Edwards being able to compete with Iowa State’s largest fundraising campaign in history to hold such an event is a long shot. Destination Iowa State is a legacy in its own, one that enabled me to meet a new lifelong friend. Like the rest of their platform, to gain the administration’s approval of what is essentially a university-wide party competing with Destination Iowa State, an event the university already pours thousands of dollars into, would hardly be doable.

Fischer and Luttrell see the administrative roles of the GSB president and vice president as an opportunity for year-round service to the students, through lobbying at the Legislature for debt forgiveness, voicing student concern about the Campustown renovation and working so that graduating Cyclones are given the benefits of the Generation Iowa Commission’s recommendations. The two combine a diverse pool of campus experience and three years of work on GSB, in which time they have established the necessary connections at the university, city and state levels to understand and effectively communicate the needs of the average student.

Every student deserves to see a GSB that works for him or her, and both candidacies have presented their ideas for doing so. Crampton and Edwards will focus on enhancing the Cyclone experience in a way already achieved every year with Veishea, an event unique to our university. Fischer-Luttrell understands that the Cyclone experience lasts for more than just a weekend at the beginning of the year and doesn’t end when a student receives a diploma.

Anasia Sturdivant

Sophomore

Sociology