In this year’s secretary race, with two experienced, knowledgeable, energetic candidates, there is no immediately obvious choice. Both Kat Lau ’13 and Lauren Koster ’12 want to find ways to keep students engaged in the work that the Yale College Council is doing and create better channels of communication within the council itself. And both of them have good ideas about how to accomplish these goals. Still, we have reason to believe that Koster may prove more effective in this role.

Both impressed us with their conception of the position, which they see not only as one that heads communications from the YCC, but also as a member of the executive board and the council at large. As such, both have ideas that go beyond just sending e-mails.

Both also have experience tackling larger issues: Lau is the current chair of the Freshman Class Council, and Koster has served as an issues representative on the YCC where she worked on issues like Bike Share and events like the Iron Chef competition.

But ultimately, the most important role of the secretary is disseminating information to the student body, something that has not been done particularly well this year. In this role, we feel Koster has a slight edge.

Lau and Koster each focus on the need for a more regularly updated and more often read YCC blog, the success of which depends on the ability to both establish a good site and driving traffic to it. At least as candidate, Koster has had a much stronger and more accessible online presence, making us more confident in her ability to do so on a large scale.

Currently, much of what the YCC does occurs behind closed doors — in one of many project groups or even just within the executive board. As such, students here often feel that the council isn’t making enough progress on issues they care about or that they have little say in the work being done. As the director of communications, the secretary has the power to change that. While we think both candidates are qualified, we feel Koster is best suited to this role.