The election of new Minnesota Student Association leadership is being held today and Wednesday. This year the election features only two campaigns for president, Max Page and Anthony Dew.

Both represent two very opposite futures for MSA, so students should consider both and choose for themselves what they want MSA to do for them.

Max Page and his running mate, Monica Heth, easily would serve a successful presidency against the current standards. Both have MSA experience and plans for working on their focus issues: lowering tuition and textbook costs and altering the fees process.

They see year-round lobbying efforts at the Capitol as a way for MSA to communicate with the state to lower tuition costs. They have good ideas to make textbooks less of an expense for students. They also are planning for a fees reform requiring more objective standards.

It is good to focus on issues like lowering tuition and textbook costs as well as the fees process, but we feel these are issues MSA would deal with no matter what the president’s platform. They do address other issues, but with only a yearlong term, we find it unlikely that much else would change in MSA.

Anthony Dew and his running mate Jeff Tate bring new perspective to MSA. Dew has served in MSA and has made progress in lobbying for housing issues. Although Tate has no previous experience within MSA, he is active in the University community and holds the outsider’s ability to ignore current standards and successfully affect change.

They are focusing on alternative issues of affordable and safer housing, lowering transportation costs and changing campus culture. They plan to continue their lobbying efforts to protect students from landlord exploitation. They would work toward a universally issued U-Pass that would, in turn, cost fractions less. Most importantly on their ticket is the desire to create a more unified campus and a better atmosphere for minorities.

Anthony and Jeff do lack the solidity of Max and Monica’s plans.

However, their ticket is more promising as far as getting non-MSA insiders actually involved in student government.

The choice of what kind of MSA you want is up to you.