It is easy to forget the scope of what students can do, especially when they are running for an office as local as student body government. But there is more to what we expect from student leaders than what they have done on the campus level. Jonathan Mullin, one of the Government of the Student Body vice-presidential candidates, is the only student running who brings experience from an international level. And his running mate, Matthew Denner, wants to focus on what students want, promising to speak to students personally each and every day of his administration if elected.

Both students bring with them a slew of experience from political organizations, including the ISU chapter of Amnesty International (of which Mullin is currently the president) and the ISU Campus Greens (of which Denner is currently the president). They also have endorsements from politically driven campus groups like the Feminist Majority Leadership Association.

They are, however, lacking the one thing most expect from candidates in these elections: GSB experience. Neither have been involved with GSB at any level in their three years at Iowa State, and this doesn’t provide the best outlook for how they will fare in the elections.

But Denner and Mullin know this, and they’re not claiming they know everything about our particular student body government. But they do know government. Denner sat through his first city council meeting at the age of four. And both have done their fair share of lobbying — working with President Gregory Geoffroy to expand the Free Speech Zone and with legislators to keep the recycling deposits on cans and bottles.

So GSB experience or no, these two candidates are keeping a realistic outlook on what are rather lofty goals. Some are attainable — such as pumping up recycling efforts. But on other issues, Denner and Mullin still seem to be in over their heads — such as opening a multicultural center in the Memorial Union (though they’ve yet to speak to the MU Board of Directors), gaining the respect of GSB senators to do more work on behalf of their constituents and fighting inevitable tuition increases.