As the East Lansing City Council election draws near, it is becoming increasingly clear that incumbent City Council members Bill Sharp and Vic Loomis have a vision for East Lansing.

Unfortunately, it is also becoming increasingly clear their vision does not include the welfare of students.

Both incumbents are apt to tout their green and white pride, sport a Sparty lapel pin and inundate passersby with rhetorical flourishes about the benefits of living in a "university town."

Yet their actions over the last two years have shown anything but pride or respect for their collegiate neighbors: rental restrictions, draconian penalties for "party noise," a total failure to take the input of their student constituents seriously, and an inability to separate individuals who behave inappropriately from the vast majority of law abiding students. More often than not it seems like Sharp and Loomis view students less as neighbors and more as an unindicted criminal menace.

Sharp and Loomis are right: East Lansing's City Council needs a vision. But if we are going to mend the breech of trust between students and permanent residents and move our city into the 21st century, that vision needs to include every resident of East Lansing.

Nathan Triplett
political theory and constitutional democracy and social relations senior