Are North and South campus Representatives important? From the looks of the candidates’ statements and speeches, and even their vague titles, it seems like the answer is clearly no. Most voting students have no idea what the North and South campus Representatives on senate do. And really, what does it mean to be a “representative” of the north or south parts of campus? This is not the civil war, people.

These titles sound benign, especially when coupled with candidates statements featuring superficial promises like “I’ll move snack to south campus.” In case anyone or everyone missed it, North and South Campus Representatives are really important – or rather, they serve important functions (despite their unfortunate titles). Sure, they sort of represent the interests of certain dorms, but really, the minor issues on campus that they might take charge of are red herrings that distract from the fact that the North and South campus Representatives serve on both the Budget Committee and the Student Affairs Committee (SAC). In fact, they are the only students on both of these committees besides the ASPC President, Vice President, and the Residence Halls and Food Commissioner.

While the seniors running for North Campus Representative did mention that they would be serving on the budget committee, they failed to adequately explain the implications of such a position. (Moreover, while many upperclassmen might know that about their representative, the freshmen on south campus definitely do not know). The implications, of course, are that they decide how to split up the ASPC pie (money from our mandatory student fees) among organizations. There were no campaign promises during this entire election indicating changes candidates hoped to make to the Budget Committee or the budget process. Instead, students were bombarded with good ideas for social events that distracted from the bigger issues. The impact of this distraction is that students then assume that candidates’ platforms somehow reflect their primary responsibilities. A reasonable assumption, but unfortunately incorrect.

Perhaps worse than those misleading assumptions was the complete omission of any SAC issues from candidate platforms. Being a part of the SAC is perhaps the most important function of the North and South Campus Representatives, simply because the SAC is a tremendously important decision making body. For example, SAC drafted and adopted the new alcohol policy and will be the only body authorized to make substantial changes to that policy.

The problem is two-fold; candidates’ campaigns do not focus on the most significant aspects of their positions and we voters do not hold them accountable for those responsibilities. Even candidates that made the run-offs got away with having little substance to their plans. The election is over, but it is not too late to hold the people we voted accountable for their most essential responsibilities, not just forks and snack.