Anthony Dew and Jeff Tate need your help. Today and Wednesday, elect a president and vice president of the Minnesota Student Association that will rock the boat and try new ideas. The president and vice president help make decisions that affect all students at the University. In addition to being the voice of the students to the administration, they are responsible for managing a budget of more than $110,000 worth of Student Service Fees – real money we all contribute as a part of being a student here at the University.

You have two choices. The first is Max Page. Max is ambitious and good-spirited. He’s the current president of University DFL and kept a blog on the bickering during last year’s MSA campaign. He has the charisma and personal ambition to get votes, but will not shake up MSA the way it needs. While he has good intentions, his issues are not as thought out as they could be. His textbook plan, for example, is already outdated. On the day of the debates, the Daily covered a story of a University task force that has been working on this issue for more than a year. Max has not given any intention of working with this task force, or even that he knew of its existence.

This is just another example of a candidate who spends more time thinking about campaigning and personal connections than the issues they’re working on. Max said in the Daily last week that, “he would like to meet with every (Minnesota) legislator as student body president (to discuss tuition issues).” While this may be a good way of making political connections, it doesn’t seem to be effective. Wouldn’t it be more effective to organize and support students from each district to visit their own legislators, rather than one person visiting all of them?

I’ve encouraged my friends and peers to vote for Anthony Dew because he is someone who has the courage and conviction of his beliefs to take a stand and stick by them. Anthony Dew has a proven track record of serving all of us in an effective, meaningful way – having established the MSA Renter’s Guide, a fantastic resource for student off-campus housing renters (available across campus), the Renter’s Survey online results, available at www.msa.umn.edu, and successfully having lobbied with local governments in 2005 to prohibit abusive rental application fees. These accomplishments show that Anthony Dew has the ability to strategize and execute realistic goals.

Dew has concrete plans and well-thought issues based on experience, not theory. He’s decided housing is an important issue through his lobbying experience. He’s decided the minority experience isn’t as strong as it could be through his own experience. There never has been a black student-body president before, so minority issues always have ended up being only an issue for minorities. Dew would like to bring race consciousness to the University.

Anthony Dew has treated the election as an exchange of information instead of practice for political office. He and his associates have opened up a dialogue with fellow students along the campaign trail – taking notes in mini-memo pads along the way. I am confident he will continue to do so throughout the remainder of this week, and in doing so, will have built a better campus – win or lose. I am confident that in this go-around Anthony will make an excellent MSA president, and I invite you to vote for him online today and Wednesday. It only takes five minutes and you can do so with your x.500 account. Visit: www.DewTheRightThing.com.

Patrick Delaney is a University student. Please send comments to [email protected].