It's one year into the University Park Undergraduate Association's (UPUA) stint as the official voice of Penn State students.

When Jay Chamberlin took over after Bundy's short-lived presidency, the student body collectively crossed its fingers for a return of integrity to Penn State student government. We were let down, yet again, when not a single worthwhile thing was accomplished during Chamberlin's year as UPUA president.

Penn State students need leaders who can set feasible goals and accomplish them in a timely manner. We need leaders who recognize Penn State's shortcomings and can work to overcome them.

We need leaders who will make the powers-that-be listen and make changes that benefit the students.

Because UPUA candidates Peter Johnson and Chris Lenn are the most likely to efficiently represent student interests, The Daily Collegian Board of Opinion endorses them for the next UPUA presidency and vice presidency.

Unlike most student government candidates of past and present, Johnson and Lenn have proposed objectives that can be feasibly accomplished during one year. Examples include an expansion of the bursar account for textbook purchases, an increase in trash and recycling receptacles across campus and e-mail alerts for important dates like the beginning of class registration. Johnson and Lenn say they will work to extend library and pool hours, end the use of Styrofoam on campus and add vegetarian and healthier food options in the HUB. They want to extend the drop-add period and improve the current eLion system for class registration.

They have proposed to work with the Center for Student Engagement to create meetings of registered student groups once a semester to gauge the climate and concerns of Penn State students.

They do not claim to have the solution to the complicated issue of rising tuition or propose to eliminate all acts of intolerance and bigotry at Penn State. But they've got goals that should be appealing to students and reasonable to the administration.

Johnson and Lenn, while rookies to the world of student government, do have other experience in Penn State student groups. Johnson is a member of the College Republicans, and Lenn sits on the Fee Allocation Board and is a member of the Rainbow Roundtable.

Currently, the Association of Big Ten Students (ATBS) does not recognize UPUA as an official student government.

The only way to procure this recognition is by getting things done for the students. The goals established by Johnson and Lenn are obtainable and their accomplishments will show the ABTS that UPUA is capable of serving as a viable form of student governance.

In addition to the Johnson/Lenn ticket, the Board of Opinion was impressed by the platforms of two other tickets. Both the Ricardo Torres/Mike Anderson ticket and the Daniel Hadas/Michael Barasch ticket showed promise for student government at Penn State.

While Torres and Anderson have a vast amount of experience through the Undergraduate Student Government and UPUA, some of their goals were out of touch with what students need from UPUA this year. Drafting a student Bill of Rights and developing a program to educate students about health issues are not what students need.

However, they do know the system and could begin working immediately.

For Hadas and Barasch, some of their objectives were similar to those of the Johnson/Lenn ticket, but there was little indication any effort had been made to contact appropriate sources in the university to gauge the feasibility of their ideas. Their involvement in Sigma Phi Epsilon and the Race Relations Project do give them credibility, and their personalities could easily translate to student leadership.

Freshmen candidates Gavin Keirans and Michael Wallace, while impressive in their passion for the job, need to spend more time as Penn State students before they can expect to effectively represent the student body. In time they could mature into viable candidates for the UPUA presidency and vice presidency, but electing them now would be jumping the gun.

Hillary Lewis and Franklin Keller simply don't seem prepared to handle the responsibility of running a student government. They do address tuition but don't have any new plans for lowering it besides the Rally in the Rotunda.

They say they want to advocate for more student housing, but they don't have any concrete ideas on how to go about getting it.

Jonathan Gremminger and James Isajewicz lack any platform goals or legitimate planning and should not be considered in this contest.

With the realization that UPUA president and vice president are demanding positions and that the organization itself has a long way to go before it is taken seriously by most students, the Board of Opinion endorses Peter Johnson and Chris Lenn as the next leaders of Penn State student government.