This week, 394 traditional students voted for next year’s Community Senate executives. The winning ticket received 223 votes, making next year’s Senate President Tim Scales. His Vice Presidents are Katie Bailey and Wes Corning, with Chris Lampkin as Treasurer and Lili Sharpless as Secretary. Congratulations to them for their success. The New Guilford Party and the Nick Boylan ticket received 151 votes between them. The most prominent write-in was the Old Party, spear-headed by Abraham Lincoln and accompanied by Santa Claus, Ludwig van Beethoven and Genghis Kahn, receiving 11 votes.

Of those eligible to vote, 30.5 percent came out on Tuesday At the beginning of the semester, elections for open senator positions yielded 273 voters, or 21.1 percent of eligible voters.

Compared with national elections, Guilford students did not participate as well as the general American public. National voter turnout in 2004 was 55.3 percent, and in the last mid-term election (2002) it was 37 percent.

I present these numbers to demonstrate that, like most Americans, Guilford students come out in stronger numbers for the higher-profile races; but regardless of the attention an election receives, the impact on our lives is huge.

Local politics, such as student governments, are often over looked by the general population; but just as local governments have the power to affect your daily life outside of Guilford, Community Senate has the power to change things here.

Use the new executives as your advocates. Effective change starts with the individual, but you can use the new executives to be more broadly heard. They are here to help you.

Scales will meet with everyone from Adrienne Craig and Aaron Fetrow (weekly) to Kent Chabotar (monthly). He will have the ear of those on the Strategic Long-Range Planning (SLRP) Committee and the Vice Presidents of this college. Scales, Corning, Bailey, Lampkin, and Sharpless will also represent you at Board of Trustees meetings.

Student voices are taken more seriously at Guilford College than at almost any other school. We are lucky that any student here can visit the President during his open office hours and actually talk with the President.

By electing Scales and his ticket to office, the students of Guilford College have placed an enormous amount of trust in these five individuals to advocate for students, but they need more than your trust. They also need your help.

It is your responsibility as students to get involved and make your voices heard. The executives this year kept students better informed. With Senate in the Cafeteria, the bulletin board in the Founders hall stairwell, our Web site (http://www.guilford.edu/senate), office hours and regular Senate meetings, every student had a chance to catch a current executive to tell them what was on their mind. Take the available opportunities. Together, we can influence the future of the college.