Beginning this week, we at the Globe are publishing profiles on our candidates for vice-president and president of our United Student Government.

What is the purpose behind devoting an entire page of our news section to these profiles? We want to help inform the electorat. That means you – the student body.

It’s easy to forget that these elections are just as important as the election that flooded our Facebook feeds a few short months ago. These elections will directly impact our campus community, and therefore directly affect you as a student. We should be in agreement that it’s important to exercise your right to vote on campus.

It is all too easy to complain about the food in the dining hall, or the speed of the Wi-Fi, and forget or simply overlook that you have the ability to elect the people you want to directly handle these situations or bring them to the attention of those that can. These complaints don’t have to be a shout into the void; we have a governing body that wants to work for us, and we should let them.

This isn’t a public service announcement to go out and vote. That’ll come soon enough. Instead, let this serve as a reminder why we’re doing what we we’re doing – we’re writing these profiles and asking the important questions that you, the students, want answers to. We want you to get to know your candidates better. We want you to know the intentions at the heart of each candidate’s campaign.

It’s important for us as a student media outlet to maintain our meaningful relationship with USG, but moreover, it’s important that the student body is connected to and content with the student leadership on campus.

Our generation has often been referred to as an “apathetic generation.” We’ve been accused of approaching our degrees with a consumerist mentality – thinking of our degree as a product that our tuition dollars are purchasing for us.

While their presence is essential and is the reason why students’ concerns and ideas can be met with an actual follow-through, why would we leave it up to administration when we have influential student leadership at our fingertips?

Read the profiles. Get to know your candidates. Make an informed decision.

Take ownership of your campus and your life. You should care about these elections because you should care about your campus.