It’s that time of the year again — Student Government Association elections. You know, that completely legitimate campus event most students at UNA are completely unaware of, if I had to guess.

In all honesty, I’m fairly sure most students could not care less about SGA elections, or even SGA for that matter.

However, I believe it is important to take part in these elections.

Consider that these elections are an example of the democratic process: campaigning, competing, exercising the right to vote and crowning a victor.

Students may ask how this is different from those loathsome popularity contests we had in high school. They were called “student council elections.” Remember those?

Maybe some students do. Maybe some students are reading this and thinking “Oh! So we aren’t supposed to call it student council anymore?”

Seriously, when I was surveying students for my article “Who are you: SGA leaders discuss visibility poll results,” I must have talked to at least 20 students who thought SGA was called student council. Is this a big deal? Maybe not. But I’m assuming if students don’t know the name of the organization, they probably have no clue what the organization does.

But that’s beside the point. My point here is a simple one: What makes SGA elections different from the student council races we remember from high school is SGA elections actually matter.

To enlighten those of us who have no idea what SGA elections are, at the start of next week online polls will open allowing students the opportunity to vote for next year’s Student Government Association executive officers (there’s an article on 2A of this issue about the candidates and their platforms, so I recommend checking it out).

These positions include: SGA President, Vice President of SGA Senate, Vice President of the University Program Council, Secretary and Treasurer.

The students who are elected to these positions will have the power to lead the other members of SGA in passing legislation, planning events, serving the campus community and being the official voice of the student body. The decisions these students make are about as real world as it gets, involving real people, real events and real money (money, might I add, that comes from the student activity fee, which is part of every student’s tuition).

This year student participation in the SGA election will be even more vital, since only three students are running for executive positions unopposed.

This means some of our fellow students are currently campaigning head-to-head to win one of the remaining two executive positions. This would be exciting stuff if more members of the student body were willing to care.

If you read The Flor-Ala with any regularity, you know the news section covers the activities of SGA just about every week.

In fact, we recently established an “SGA in Review” box on 8A so students could keep tabs on the decisions SGA members are making.

We’ve felt like in-depth coverage of this organization is important because the decisions they make, if well-executed, tend to stick.

For example, members of SGA have been raising money for four years to fund their endowed scholarship.

Based on earlier reports in our paper we know this scholarship is not strictly something SGA members are doing to pay for the educational needs of other SGA members. In fact, SGA President Laura Giles tells me they won’t be able to determine how the scholarship will be used until it is raised.

The important thing to remember is this money, however it will be used, is being raised BY the students FOR the students.

That’s a huge deal and so far they’ve raised $13,436.86, said treasurer Elizabeth Tyson.

Furthermore, some of our student leaders within SGA met with Alabama state senators last week to advocate for lowering the student tuition of publicly-funded institutions at Higher Education Day.

Raising money and advocating for students — these are just some of the tasks SGA members perform to serve the campus community. Can I make it anymore plain?

Students at UNA need money, just like students at any other college. Similarly, students at UNA should want to have a voice that can be heard by the powers that be. SGA was designed to be that voice.

We vote for them, they represent us.

If we want them to represent us well, we need to vote for the students we think will do the job the best.

It’s simple, if we want this group’s efforts to continue, if we want to show we care, we need to vote. We need to show SGA we care as much about the work they are (or should be) doing as they do.