Every year The Spectrum editorial board invites candidates for Student Association executive board and NYSSA delegate positions for interviews to determine the best among them. Each candidate is subject to a 15-minute interview process. The first five minutes are allotted for personal statements, which candidates can use to inform the board of whatever he or she believes will demonstrate their superior qualifications for the job.
Then, each candidate is asked a series of general knowledge questions designed to test their preparedness for the office they aspire to hold. Failure to answer these questions correctly does not automatically preclude someone from receiving an endorsement, but reflects poorly upon them as ill prepared for the position and negatively affects the endorsement.
The final portion of the interview process is dedicated to questions from board members about the position, the candidate's previous experiences either in SA or the larger UB community, and their positions on issues from SA budget appropriations to higher education bills currently before the New York state legislature. Once all the candidates who accepted our invitation have been interviewed, our editorial board discusses the strengths and weaknesses of all candidates, and based upon that discussion, come to a consensus on who to endorse and why. Our endorsements are based upon the interviews plus, in the case of candidates currently in student government, the sum of our knowledge about their achievements and failures over the past year.
With a student population spread across two campuses, dorms, on-campus apartments, off-campus apartments, thousands of commuters and hundreds of clubs, it's incredibly difficult for students to have an overall flavor of UB. When asking such a widely spread pool of voters to choose who controls SA's $2 million budget or who goes to Albany to fight for students' rights, that's a herculean task. Our endorsement process strives to make things easier for students. It gives students the who, what and why of the 2002 SA elections. Our endorsement issue personalizes the races, gives faces and depth to the names plastered on fliers across campus. We bring issues to the candidates we believe to be of the most concern to students and elicit their opinions. In turn, their statements help voters learn about the candidates.
Secondly, The Spectrum learns what exactly the candidates intend to do if elected. We now know what the winners, whoever they turn out to be, want to accomplish when in office. Their pledges and promises are something we will watch over the next year to see if they honor their word.
We urge all students to make an informed decision about the candidates as we have. We see our endorsements as a tool to assist that process. We want you, the readers, to take your information and opinions, reconcile them with ours and vote accordingly. But, ultimately, the choice is yours.
