“Blue or green? What’s the difference and which party should I vote for?”

We’ve all heard these questions several times in the last couple of weeks and we want to take this opportunity to provide some answers and tell you how a vote for the Open People’s Party is a conscious and educated vote for you.

As members of OPP, we have brought together a diverse slate that serves to represent all corners of this university. Aside from others, we have representatives from athletics, the arts, the greek community, multicultural and professional organizations, as well as experienced members of Associated Students. Our most sincere goal is to utilize our focus and our diversity to better represent you – the students.

Let us tell you what we, as students, think student government should not be. It should not be a forum for personal agendas and it should not be a forum for partisan bickering. We love UCSB, and it is our simple goal to make THIS place better for everyone who lives here.

The recently passed Students’ Initiative has given A.S. an incredible amount of money to work with, which has the opportunity to benefit a vast array of student organizations. We promise that we will work tirelessly to ensure these funds are distributed transparently, responsibly and fairly for the direct benefit of the most students possible. After all, it’s your money and you deserve to know what A.S. is spending it on. Among other improvements to this campus, OPP will work to bring additions to the A.S. Bike Shop and will work with the A.S. Program Board and Arts & Lectures to bring more nationally renowned speakers and musical talent to UCSB.

We also understand the importance of the incredibly diverse student opinions on campus, so OPP will continue to repair the once deteriorating relationships between A.S., the Daily Nexus and KCSB. Members of the OPP fought tooth-and-nail against restricting the funds for the Nexus because we recognize how important the paper is for our campus, for our voices and for our local news.

We understand that the average student doesn’t know much about what A.S. does, so we will improve A.S. transparency by posting all legislative bills on the Internet. The OPP will work to create an online catalogue of all the actions and legislation taken by A.S. over the past 10 years. By looking into the past mistakes of A.S., we can work to avoid previous errors and make sure you know exactly what is going on in your student government.

We are committed to increasing diversity on campus by promoting academic preparation and by creating recruitment and retention centers on campus. It is OPP’s stance that a diverse student body is essential.

When you go to cast a vote this coming week, we ask you to take the time to get educated about our candidates. We think it will become apparent that the OPP has an incredible slate of leaders who have the motivation and experience necessary to make this campus the best it can be.

So we ask you to vote April 23 through 26 on GOLD, and we hope that you “get down with OPP” – welcome to the party.