Student Government campaigns are more than names chalked on sidewalks across campus, pop-up events and social media accounts. Those running for Student Government set the stage to tackle the issues most important to students.

Those elected advocate on behalf of students at the university, city, state and even national levels. 

This year the organization has voiced student concern on issues such as the housing decisions made by the city, campus climate, sexual misconduct, pedestrian safety and medical amnesty, among many more. As tuition and funding for the university becomes even more uncertain, members of the Student Government are students’ advocates to university administration and the state legislature. 

They also spend student fee money allocated to the organization on student organizations and other campus initiatives. The Senate allocated $190,000 to the spring concert. The Senate also discontinued funding the New York Times subscription and is advocating for student fee money to help with deferred maintenance in the Memorial Union. 

What issues will they tackle next year? Follow the Daily’s coverage to learn more about the platforms each executive slate and senator is running for. We hope you all follow along with the campaigns and make your voices heard about the issues you care about. 

Here are the issues we want to see addressed: 

• Funding — We firmly believe lagging public funding for the university is one of the greatest detriments we face. The Student Government must continue pushing for change and raising awareness about how funding cuts and tuition hikes affect students.

• Campus climate — As an editorial board, we have a vision for an institution made up of individuals with varying cultural backgrounds. We hope this university becomes a place where all feel welcome and at the same time controversial topics can be discussed in a civil manner. Student Government leaders should set the standard for this among students and request more effort from administrators to accomplish this.

• Sexual misconduct — We firmly believe the times of blaming victims for sexual harassment, sexual assault and rape should be long gone. We want Student Government leaders to support initiatives providing resources to survivors, but also want the leaders to push for more initiatives to prevent this horrible behavior. 

• Pedestrian safety— In a recent editorial, we wrote that we would like to see a community effort behind pedestrian safety. We support the Student Government task force looking into this and hope to see it continued. 

We will be interviewing the executive slates and will be making an endorsement as the campaigning time winds down. Want to tell us why you support a campaign? Submit a letter to the editor.