​Though both ASWSU presidential tickets are qualified to run the student government, we feel the institution needs more than a continuation of the leadership it has seen in recent years.

The ASWSU executives receive the full cost of attendance at WSU, which is about $30,000, as payment for holding office. Considering this, whomever we elect should be dedicated to enacting meaningful change for the good of the students.

We have already seen presidential candidate Zachary Anders and vice presidential candidate Kai Amos interacting frequently with students on the mall. Both spoke in Wednesday’s ASWSU meeting in support of undocumented students.

Presidential candidate Jordan Frost, and his running mate Garrett Kalt, are veteran ASWSU members, and we don’t mean to say their time has been fruitless. But we believe ASWSU could do much more, and their campaign slogan, “changing the conversation,” does not seem an indicator of tangible improvement. As we see it, Anders and Amos are more likely to effect this change.

“ASWSU needs to constantly be fighting for actual, sustainable change,” Anders said in a KUGR debate with Frost on Friday, “things that we can hold in our hand at the end of the day.”

We would like to acknowledge what could be perceived as our biases in relation to Anders and Amos. Anders worked for several months in spring 2016 as a news reporter for The Daily Evergreen under the current editor-in-chief, Cody Cottier. Amos is the editor of the Chinook Student Yearbook and attends a weekly meeting with Cottier and the managing editor, Gabriella Ramos.

These potential conflicts of interest prompted two of our members, news editor Sarah Olsen and assistant news editor Dan Doucet, to recuse themselves from this endorsement. They have chosen to remain uninvolved because they believe this will better preserve the objectivity and integrity of their reporting on the ASWSU elections.

We understand this argument and realize that some of our readers may have similar concerns. However, we did not come to this decision quickly and we have so far made every effort to disclose our background with the Anders-Amos ticket, as well as to emphasize the separation between the Editorial Board’s stances and the news section’s objective reporting.

That said, we agree with Anders’ and Amos’ slogan “actions speak louder.” Their main concerns are student fees, university accountability and participatory leadership, and we believe these are more likely to translate to meaningful action.

Campaign pillars often prove to be only vague generalities, and as journalists, we can more easily hold accountable candidates with solid goals. Students also deserve and require as much specificity as possible to help them make informed decisions, and we see this most in Anders and Amos.

Though they do not have the same level of ASWSU experience, they have both held significant leadership roles in other organizations, and we are confident in their commitment to changing more than the conversation.

Our word is, of course, not final. We strongly encourage all students to consider our arguments, but also to evaluate the candidates themselves. They will hold a debate at 7 p.m. on Sunday in the CUB Senior Ballroom, and we will continue to provide coverage of the election in the coming weeks. Our candidate profiles on Page 3 of this edition are a good starting point.

In the end, the most essential thing is student engagement. We pay for ASWSU’s operations through Services and Activities fees, so we all have a stake in their effectiveness.

We have also included instructions for how to vote on Page 3. We have attempted here to make our case for the candidates we believe will best represent students’ interests, but if you take just one thing away from reading this, we hope it will be those instructions. Get out and vote for who you believe will do right by you and your fellow students.

The Editorial Board can be contacted at 335-2290 or by [email protected].