After Chapel on Friday, students will head down to the Students’ Association office to hand over their petitions to run for class senator or academic building representative.

Before handing over the required signatures, however, those students need think hard about the eight-month commitment that sitting on Congress represents.

To freshmen and candidates who have yet to participate in SA, Congress is not what many experienced in a high school student council. SA does not sit in its meetings deciding how to decorate for prom or planning the next social event.

This year, Congress likely will have about $200,000 of the students’ money to spend on their behalf, and almost none of that will be spent by SA planning social events. Those interested in event planning can join the Campus Activities Board.

SA has the opportunity to create real change on campus through student-led initiatives and projects that students actually care about.

However, the most effective members will need to be among their constituents and at the weekly meetings to be truly a part of Congress.

This means students who know they plan to study abroad in the spring should consider whether or not they will be doing their constituents a service by filling a seat on Congress thousands of miles away.

And candidates need to be willing to spend several hours Wednesday evenings to participate entirely in Congress’ weekly meetings.

Much discussion occurred last year about whether effective members of Congress needed to be at all of the meetings or simply interacting among their constituents. The answer is that both are important to learn about opportunities to serve the students and to follow through with them.

Effective members of Congress who can influence positive change for the students who are out there.

Last year alone, members of Congress saw The WB television station added to campus cable and the parking lot of Sikes Hall connected with the Williams Performing Arts Center lot to make traffic flow more smoothly.

The student body needs motivated members on Congress. Don’t take a seat away from one of them by running some witty campaign if you don’t intend to represent your constituents.

Many prospective candidates reading this now know all of this and are prepared to sacrifice their time to advocate for students’ needs. By all means, go about getting your signatures and turning your petitions in to gain candidacy. We need you on Congress.

But if you can’t faithfully represent your constituents fully for the next eight months, stick to signing others’ petitions.

Respond to the editorial at: optimist@acu.edu