Walking across SMU’s main quadrangle today, students noticed their peers’ campaign signs defaced. With seemingly no exceptions, someone used permanent marker to draw on the candidates’ faces and write “none of the above” on each stake sign. If you do not like the student leadership at SMU, do something productive to change it; do not waste time ruining the signs that candidates have worked hard to make.

As the Student Body Constitution currently stands, students can elect any full-time SMU student who is in good standing with the university and has at least a 2.0 GPA to a Senate seat or student body officer position. Senators must be enrolled in the school from which they are elected for at least half of the term. These qualifiers leave the majority of SMU students eligible to run in the upcoming election. Those not eligible are excluded from the race because they are not representative of the population they would serve: full-time students in good standing with GPAs above 2.0.

There are several candidates running for student body president, vice president and secretary and a handful of others competing for Senate seats. Nevertheless, apparently someone does not think this pool of students is adequate. That person would like to vote for “none of the above.” Unfortunately for him or her, not having student body officers is not an option.

SMU students should take an interest in student elections and voice their opinions about the candidates. However, anonymously claiming that none of the candidates is worth voting for – by the very mature means of drawing mustaches on their posters, no less – will not change the candidate pool.

With the number of contenders for student body officer positions, surely most students will find an option who shares some of their viewpoints. If not, fine. Run for a position yourself. If you have valid points that you can articulate in a more adult fashion than drawing pictures on other people’s posters, maybe your peers will elect you. In the meantime, leave the people who are doing the work and trying to make SMU a better place alone.

The student elections run all day today and on Thursday until 7 p.m. Students who want to actually make a difference instead of just complain about the problems should vote by visiting smu.edu/elections.

About the writer:

Susan Carmody is a senior journalism major. She can be reached at [email protected].