Staff editorial: Student friendly

District 3 City Councilman Mark Cook, who may be best known on the council for playing hookey, is bidding for a seat on the county school board in the middle of his two-year term. If he beats challenger Peggy Higgins, the director of the city's community resources department, in the fall, he will be required to vacate his seat on the council. The move will prompt a special election to find a successor, sooner rather than later.

Council members stepping down in the middle of their two-year terms is not an uncommon occurrence; the other District 3 council member, Stephanie Stullich, was elected to her post after a special election was called.

But special elections and students share a little-known history fraught with controversy. In recent years, special elections have had the effect of silencing student voters and diminishing any hope of student candidates.

The last time a special election was called in 2006, city rules stipulated that the votes must be cast no later than 45 days after the seat was vacated. This means the election was held smack-dab in the middle of winter break when students — who represent about 30 percent of the city's population — were home for the holidays.

In that election, the only undergraduate student to have run for a council spot in recent memory, Nick Aragon, was roundly defeated by his challenger. He couldn't reach out to the student voters he relied on for support — they simply weren't in town.

The city put an end to the blatant disenfranchisement by adding 20 days to the time allotted between between when a spot is vacated and an election is held.

Thanks to the small but effective change, the time is ripe for students to take back the special elections.

District 3 is a student-heavy area, encompassing Fraternity Row, the Old Town neighborhood, downtown, South Campus Commons and the Knox Boxes. It boasts the most voting residents in the city. It's an area from which numerous qualified candidates could be culled and an area known for spawning political leaders in the city, such as former Mayor Stephen Brayman and current Mayor Andy Fellows. A student candidate for the council would be natural for District 3, where issues such as rent control, street parking permits and Route 1 redevelopment often sharply divide homeowners and students.

An added bonus is the candidate would only have to serve a one-year term to round out Cook's unfinished one. The law requires candidates be 21 or older, and at that age, most students won't stick around College Park for another two years. But if Cook steps down in December and his term ends the following November, that's a reasonable commitment for a politically aware and motivated college senior.

During the 2009 elections, the Student Government Association tried but failed to get a student candidate on the ballot. When the body reconvenes in the fall, its members should keep an eye on Cook's seat. They must immediately begin to scour potential candidates and rally student voters to finally achieve that long-standing but elusive goal: a student representing our interests on the city council.