Do your part (if you can figure it out)

The University at Buffalo University Council elections are currently underway. Voting began Monday at 9 a.m. and ends Wednesday at midnight.

The Council serves to oversee the foremost plans, activities and challenges facing UB. One student serves on the Council, representing the nearly 28,000 UB undergraduate, graduate and professional studies students.

In recent years, the voting for the Council election moved from a physical voting booth to an online process. Since that time it has been noted that the Internet voting procedure was extremely complex, so much so that many students were discouraged from voting.

After the 2006 Council elections, Jennifer Wantz of UB's Student Life office made a promise to the candidates who ran - she pledged to streamline the 2007 University Council election voting process.

One year later, nothing has changed.

Student Life had an entire year to make it easier for students to vote in Council elections, and yet made no progress whatsoever.

In the corporate world, something like this would not be tolerated - but in the Student Life office, such inaction doesn't even warrant a slap on the wrist. Instead, the student body is being punished, as we now have only one day left to figure out this convoluted process and vote.

Because no successful effort was made in simplifying the voting process, The Spectrum's Editorial Board completely understands how frustration could keep the average voter from logging on to the polls.

However, since the student representative to the UB Council is one of the few links between the students and our administration, we believe that everyone should vote - no matter how complex Student Life makes the process.

To vote in the University Council elections, follow these steps:

Step 1: Type the following link into your Web browser in order to being the voting process: https://ublearns.buffalo.edu

Step 2: Log in to UBLearns using your UBIT username and password

Step 3: Select the "Courses" tab at the top of your page

Step 4: Type "University Council" in the course search area and press "Go"

Step 5: Click the "Enroll" button mid-way down on the right side of the page

Step 6: Select "Submit"

Step 7: Click "OK"

Step 8: At this point, you will be brought to a page where you can read about the University Council's purpose, learn about the candidates up for election and read more directions on how to ultimately to place your vote

Step 9: To the left of your screen click on the "Cast Vote Here" button

Step 10: Click on the "University Council Elections 2007 - 2008" in the middle of the page

Step 11: Click "OK"

Step 12: On this page you can finally place your vote by clicking on the check box that corresponds to your desired candidate and then click "Submit"