Now that campaigning for Student Assembly positions has officially begun, the candidates are doing all they can to publicize themselves and their platforms. Amongst many diverse ideas, one thing many of the candidates have in common is their failure to explain how they plan to accomplish these goals.

Last week in Washington Square Park, New York University learned that its students were no longer content with forming Facebook groups and holding discussions to enumerate their complaints with the university. NYU students took hold of Kimmel Student Center, engaging the campus in a protest that included, at times, roughly 70 demonstrators, to promote the idea of socially responsible investment.

According to endowmentethics.org, “Socially responsible investing (SRI) empowers shareholders to use their assets for positive change. SRI encourages investors to consider the social and environmental consequences of a given investment, as a factor equally important to, and reflective of, the investment’s financial performance.”

The University announced on Friday that it would terminate its business relationship with Russell Athletics due to concerns over labor violations and anti-union practices. While we applaud the decision of the University, the decision is largely due to the efforts of student groups and recent activism. The University should have the responsible foresight to sever ties with violating companies before students rise up in protest.

The war being fought in the Middle East is a two-sided conflict that has cost over 1,300 people their lives. Over the past two weeks, we fear that the battle taking shape here at Cornell is mirroring that conflict all too well, pitting people against each other as groups go head to head in debate. The war in Gaza must stay in Gaza and Cornell must recognize it is not a battleground for partisan action but is rather an academic environment where multifaceted thought should prosper.

This week we’ve found ourselves in some seriously sticky situations — and, no, we’re not just talking about all the peanut butter that has gone bad. We’re talking about water and Wikipedia both making headlines as students across the spectrum were outspoken about a number of issues, from sustainability to Gaza, making claims both HEROICALLY awesome and VILLAINOUSLY shoddy in substance.

Last week, the Ithaca Board of Education discussed a plan to phase out the middle school component of the Lehman Alternative Community School. This plan will remove a vibrant and integral part of a progressive school, and the Board of Education should keep this valuable component of the Ithaca public school system.

The Sun recently reported that Cornell’s LGBTQ community has gone without a director or manager since the summer and gone without an assistant dean for a year and a half. These positions have been vacant since before the economic climate worsened, so there is no reason they should remain unfilled. However, even in the current recession, the University should seek to fill these positions, as well as maintain its support for other diversity offices.

Washington University in St. Louis recently announced its decision to stop selling bottled water on campus. Cornell has no intention to follow in its footsteps by discontinuing the sales of bottled water. While we support Cornell’s decision as being prudent, more steps can be taken to encourage sustainable practices, specifically in regard to water consumption on campus.

The Faculty Senate meeting last Wednesday night teemed with unfamiliar faces of uninvited guests. Though they were not asked to speak nor was their presence even acknowledged, students showed up in droves to bear witness to what could have been a new major roadblock down the path to constructing Milstein Hall.

Architecture students want Milstein. While they’re not picketing, staging sit-ins or throwing their t-squares up in the air in fits of rage, the mere fact that they showed up is something of which the University should take note.

It’s been one heck of a week for us at H&V. While outside the birds were chirping and the sun was shining, things here at the batcave are heating up as usual. People are angry. They’re waving flags and throwing shoes and passing resolutions to stop resolutions to pass moratoriums … does that make sense to you? Yeah, us neither.