The Student Association elections are over and done, but how did you do as a voter? I know we can’t know every single thing about every candidate, but did you do the best you could to make an educated decision?

Participating in the SA Election Sweeps this year helped remind me of the importance of being an informed voter, and that I have a responsibility to keep our leaders in check.

To be honest, I used to be one of those students who didn’t really do much to learn about the SA candidates. I didn’t care to learn about their platforms, look into what kind of plans they had or see if they were qualified to represent the entire student body of more than 14,000 students on this campus.

Since becoming an E-Board member of a student group of over 120 active students, I’ve been learning what it means to be a leader. I’ve also discovered the importance of selecting other leaders.

As the election campaigns began, I knew it would take a good chunk of my time to learn about the candidates. But I realized that the very purpose of my student group depended on it; if we really want to see change on campus, then we need to diligently participate in the systems set in place. We have to carefully consider the leaders we choose to partner with the administration and guide the direction of our University.

It was my first time participating in the candidate sweeps, so my first impressions radar was particularly sensitive that night. The sweeps were similar to the ever-popular Dollar Show, where all the a cappella groups and the Pappy Parker Players rotate lecture halls to perform for a few minutes in each one. Here, the candidates rotated between different lecture halls and spoke to each residential community.

I was able to learn about each candidate’s credentials and their platforms after just two minutes of them speaking and 10 minutes of questions. I didn’t know them personally, so it was important to observe their behavior during the sweeps — I wanted to vote for candidates who carried themselves professionally and treated others with a high amount of respect.

Even if you couldn’t make it to sweeps that night, you could’ve encouraged members of your student groups, your hall mates, your roommates and all of your friends to attend so they could tell you all about it.

And there were plenty of other ways to be informed. You could’ve read their platforms in Pipe Dream, e-mailed the candidates with questions or invited the candidates to one of your student group meetings to share their thoughts and answer questions from your members.

But because the elections are over, let’s remember to remind our new leaders why we voted for them in the first place, and hope that they’ll follow through. Both the leaders and the students need to encourage and advise one another, even as we make mistakes and deal with things that are out of our control.

So Binghamton University students, next time, please don’t be one of those voters who voted for the candidate with the best candy handouts — if you even bothered to vote at all. They have the difficult job of leading thousands of students with thousands of different ideas, values and opinions. The least you could do is take the time next year to get to know who the candidates are and what they stand for.

The decisions they make will affect you, whether you like it or not.