The prodigal campaign has won. We should see that culture change soon — all we need to do is kick back and wait for a bit. Student Government does not need monitoring, the executive alliance knows what it is doing and we are saved. Wait… politics do not work that way.
 
For a brief second this semester, people were interested in Student Government. The student body tuned into the political drama we had this past election. Petty personal vendettas were brought to the political playing field of our University, and we followed the gossip like bored 13-year-old children.

You are reading this column a week after the elections have finished. What have you done since then to keep track of Student Government’s advancements? Do you know if the Helgren-Kim administration plans to appoint the most qualified people to their board? Does it even matter if Student Government is transparent if you are not following what they do?

In an election that directly affects all students, it is disappointing that less than 15 percent of the student body voted. Of course, shaking our head at voter turnout is pointless now. There is only one thing we can do — constantly hold the executive alliance accountable to their campaign promises.

We were promised significantly expanded discourse regarding sexual assault and mental health issues, improved student health, and a pretty big promise to make the Forty Acres more homey. If these platform points are truly important to Helgren-Kim, we should see the assembly hustle to pass legislation in the near future and the executive branch racing to carry it out.

Some might say enough time has not passed for Helgren-Kim to put forth legislation aligned with their platform points. To those people, I reply: More than enough time has passed.

Helgren was a member of the assembly for an entire year and actually built his platform for executive alliance with the same issues that he used for his University-wide bid one year ago.

Campaigns that play on emotions pick up a lot of traction. Once students are in office, though, we tend to forget the reasons we put them there.

We were told to elect Helgren-Kim to carry out the culture change SG needed, to shed light upon the people in the dark and to bring change to the Forty Acres. Now is the time to get riled up, now is the time to actively participate and now is the time to channel the same emotions brought up in the election.

Keep SG accountable and keep pushing for tangible change. I wish the Helgren administration the best of luck, and I hope to see results soon.

Kumar is an economics freshman from Sugar Land. Follow him on Twitter @ImAbiKumar.