Illustration by Arnie Bermudez

Last week, as bleary-eyed students with a "case of the Mondays" went to class as usual, ASUA Elections Commissioner Daniel Suh made what could possibly be the most important decision of the semester.

While as most at the UA went about their newly found routines of the spring semester - wanting weather to warm up a few degrees or wondering what the hell they drank last night - 14 students were able to jump into the Associated Students of the University of Arizona race. Suh made the right call by extending the deadline to get on the ballot.

Feb. 9 signaled the beginning of a one-month whirlwind in which everything will be anything but routine. Those 30 brave souls are the ones who want to "make a difference" and "help their fellow students" by running for an office in ASUA. They will put posters up wherever there is space, talk with as many students as they can and generally run around campus like chickens with their heads cut off.

Jason Poreda Opinions Assistant

Campaigning for an ASUA office, while remaining a student, friend and sane individual, can be a tremendously hectic experience. When I ran for ASUA Senate, "free time" became as foreign to me as why girls go to the bathroom in packs.

All this hustle and bustle that is so exciting is lost on the average UA student who walks to and fro. The only difference in their daily lives is that there are more fliers covering bulletin boards, kiosks and the ground.

The fact is, most of the time, candidates don't interact with the typical UA student. And as a result, their messages are lost. Most students don't care who represents them in the student government because they never see them.

How can that troubling sentiment be changed?

Well, if you have the answer to that question, you should've gotten off your butt and on the ballot. Every year, people try to fix that problem and every year they come up short, which begs the question of who should be at the helm, leading the way.

Because of all this hoopla and the lackluster attitude of the students, running for office is not for the faint of heart. The question that always surrounds the elections: Do we want qualified candidates to better lead a generally apathetic student body, or lots of candidates to excite the student body with a competitive election? The age-old question of quantity versus quality.

Some argue that we need strong, experienced candidates who can take the load. Others say we need a whole crew of people all learning together.

That's especially true on a campus where it's so hard to get people involved and excited about student government; we need lots of people to run in order to increase the interest in the process itself.

When the first candidate packet was released, I was about to pronounce this year's ASUA election dead and, as a result, further hinder a student body struggling to gain respect.

Only nine students decided they had what it takes to be a senator next year -when there were 10 seats available - and only one person ran for the position of executive vice president. Of the original 16 candidates, 10 where running unopposed. What little there was to be excited about in the election began to fade very quickly.

Fortunately, after the deadline was extended, 14 new candidates, 13 of whom are running for the senate, threw their hats into the ring and decided to go for the gold. Now the buzz is back, and with 30 people running around campus demanding votes, there's a greater chance they will be heard.

The more students running for office, the greater chance they will bump into the "average UA student," who is only thinking about a bad grade on a test or that girl in the UA butt shorts.

Jason Poreda is a political science and communication senior. He was an ASUA senator in 2002-2003 and can be reached at letters@wildcat.arizona.edu.