It's that time of the year again, and candidates for Undergraduate Student Government president and vice president are scrambling to get the votes before the March 28 election.

When the official campaigning period begins Monday, the candidates must get their messages out and distinguish themselves from the other candidates. As the six teams vie for the important representative positions, it is imperative that they use the little time remaining to run effective campaigns.

The most important thing for the candidates to remember when they are campaigning is the size of this university. In order to engage the more than 40,000 undergraduate students and encourage them to not only vote, but to vote for them, they must do more than what some teams have done in the past. In other words, although fliers urging students to vote for Joe Shmoe and Jane Doe are effective in getting their names out, they should in no way substitute an active grassroots campaign.

Furthermore, candidates cannot rely on the two debates as the only forums by which they relay their platforms. In Wednesday night's debate, the candidates seemed to agree that race relations at Penn State should be improved, but the majority of them did not offer specific solutions. Therefore, when they get hit with questions for which they have no prepared, detailed answers, their generalized messages are lost while their possibly strong ideas may never be heard. The student body, the majority of which does not attend the debates, has no way of really knowing how the candidates stand if candidates do not actively explain their positions.

Student voters, however, also have an obligation. They should actively seek more information about the election by attending the final debate March 27, reading coverage on the candidates, contacting the candidates themselves with concerns or questions, etc. USG will also be sponsoring sessions in which students are invited to meet the candidates, the first of which takes place today in East Halls from 11:00 a.m. to 2 p.m. Without educating ourselves, we have no way of making informed choices that will inevitably affect us in the upcoming year.

We urge students and candidates to take the upcoming elections seriously. There are plenty of improvements to be made at Penn State, and the election of strong student leaders is a good place to start.