Kernel Editorial Board

A staple of the Student Government elections was altered, and it’s quite possible only UK students in Greek organizations noticed.

According to a March 24 Kernel article, the past 19 of 20 candidates for SG President and Vice President have all been endorsed by the Greek Political Action Committee. However, this year, the GPAC announced it will not endorse a candidate.

“We wanted candidates to get their ideas out there and let students make a decision for themselves,” Interfraternity Council President Kelsie Willett said. “And there had been trouble in the past with how endorsements had been done.”

GPAC’s sole purpose is to organize a debate for SG presidential candidates to express their platforms.

In the past, the Inter-Greek Programming Assembly weogjed tje debate amd decided from there who to endorse. In this case it was whether or not to endorse at all.

While it probably is a good idea to forgo the endorsement altogether, it begs the question, why now? Is it because there are two Greek candidates or is it because it is the right thing to do?

There has been a great deal of conflict surrounding endorsements in recent years, and the solution may very well be to abolish the practice completely, but for this to be a principle-based decision, the GPAC must continue to withhold endorsing candidates.

SG elections often come down to the most visible candidate anyway, and there is no need to promote one candidate over another based solely on one debate.

Without a GPAC endorsement, Greeks, and non-Greeks, can decide for themselves who to vote for without the influence of talking heads.