OUR VIEW: ASUSU elections should be in March

Once again the heat of competition for the 20 student body positions descends on Utah State University. Primary results will be announced Friday. Then, during the next week, students can vote for the final candidates, those lucky 20 who will lead the school into 2004.

But when do they start leading?

USU will have an entirely new leadership staff capable of organizing pep rallies, crafting legislation for ASUSU, running meetings and getting a head start on accomplishing goals they set in their election platforms.

But when do they start?

The answer to that is not until April 18.

From the time candidates are selected by the students, they have time to attend meetings and get a feel for what their precursors have been involved in.

This begs the question, if these people want to be involved, shouldn’t they already be involved, go to meetings and know what the positions entail?

Thankfully, new ASUSU-elect people get to start training before the outgoing officers leave for the summer, but why not have them take office after school is over?

That way, current candidates can serve students to the very end. They can fight without cutting out before the bell rings after finals week while new officers recruit committee members.

So move the elections back to the end of March. Give the new officers a month to get their feet wet, and they’ll be fine after that. That way, current officers don’t have to spend too much time worrying about things other than the jobs they were elected to do for the school year.