Editor, Daily Nexus,

Walking around campus these days, I see tons of signs littering the lawn. Smells like election season. From what I can tell, there are three major political parties on campus: The Student Action Coalition, Student Unity Now and Gauchoholics. However, none of the parties have done a good job distinguishing themselves from each other. As a freshman, I am in desperate need of some clarification. So, on my own, I investigated the differences between the parties and this is what I came up with.

The Gauchoholics are the conservative party on campus. Two years ago they had the majority of seats in Legislative Council and created much controversy by drastically cutting the funding of minority groups such as Women’s Commission and its Take Back The Night program. As a female student of color on this campus, Gauchoholics does not seem like the party to represent me. Now I’m torn between S.U.N. and S.A.C.

S.A.C. is the liberal party on campus and, for the first time, currently has the majority of legislative seats. However, because S.A.C. members are so involved with other organizations on campus, they may be spreading themselves too thin. Nonetheless, S.A.C. members helped bring the Students of Color Conference to UCSB and led the campaign against the removal of the non-western G.E. requirement. Sounds good to me.

S.U.N. is a new party on campus. S.U.N. says it is made up of conservatives and liberals. The president, who formed S.U.N., ran with the conservative Gauchoholics last year. My question: With conservatives and liberals in the same party, what will be the ideology – conservative or liberal? S.U.N. sounds good, but I want to make a clear vote for liberal or conservative – not both in the same party. “Progress Over Partisanship” sounds great, but what progress can be made without taking a clear stance on issues?

Upon comparing S.U.N.’s brochure with S.A.C.’s brochure, I found many similarities between the two party’s goals and mission statements. Is S.U.N. original and innovative or is it just a spinoff of S.A.C., except trying to please everyone? Fellow students and confused freshmen, this is simply my research and I encourage everyone to go out and find out for yourselves who will best represent you.