By Ronny O’Leary, Columnist

Election season is in full swing, and every political group is trying

to promote their candidates. As with every election, people with a

wide range of political views are anxious to have their voices heard.

Therefore, it is essential that Hofstra present a diversity of

opinions, so that we can make every political view heard. There are

already many political clubs, including the Hofstra Republicans, the

Hofstra Libertarians, and the Progressive Student Union. In a couple

of weeks, there will also be a club for Democrats. Thus, Hofstra does

represent a wide variety of political opinions. In addition, it is not

very hard to start a new club: a person need only complete the

required paperwork, find ten members, and attend a rules meeting,

according to Hofstra.edu. Therefore, any students with new ideas can

certainly put them in to action. However, there is more to the

equation. In order to promote their ideas, the clubs need funding from

the Student Government Association. Yet, even this is not too hard:

the club only needs to submit a constitution and a roster of all

members, and they must carry out elections according to their

constitution, as stated by Hofstra.edu. I talked to David Zuniga, the

president of SGA, in order to find out how they allocate money to the

clubs. SGA allocates money based on how involved each club is on

campus and the events the club would like to hold. The clubs present

SGA with a budget for the following academic year, and SGA then

decides how much money to provide. SGA also must consider university

policies, such as limits on event funding, when making their

decisions. Some people might think that since we should represent as

many views as possible, every club should receive a certain amount of

money. However, SGA uses the same criteria for determining how much

money will be appropriated. Therefore, I think SGA’s method of

providing money is reasonable. Additionally, because they only have so

much money to allocate, they naturally want to ensure that every

dollar allocated will be put to good use. In conclusion, these

elections are extremely important, because they can impact our

everyday lives. Therefore, we need a wide variety of political groups

expressing their views for any meaningful debates to take place.

Furthermore, as long as every group has an opportunity to form their

own clubs, SGA’s method of allocating funds is fair and balanced.