With four individuals gearing up their campaigns to succeed him, now seems as apt a time as any to assess the performance of incumbent ASUU President Ben Lowe.

Whether fair or not, the hallmark of any Associated Students of the University of Utah administration seems to be the annual fight against the state Legislature in attempting to keep U students’ tuition from increasing too drastically.

In this respect, Lowe’s grades are decidedly mixed.

The efforts of his predecessor, Jess Dalton, were conducted out in the open, where the student body could not only observe his plan, but become part of them.

As a result, with U students rallying behind him (both literally and figuratively), Dalton was able to help limit this year’s tuition increase to a modest 7 percent, as well as get the “Truth in Tuition” Bill passed into law.

As for Lowe, things have gone differently.

U students are facing a 9.3 percent tuition hike next year, and while Lowe is not responsible for the declining economic conditions that further cut already paltry state funding for higher education, and while he certainly has been dogged about talking to U administrators and state legislators on the issue, he did not do all he could.

The fact that his style has been decidedly more of the behind-closed-doors variety is not entirely an inherently wrong-headed approach, but neither has it been the most effective.

While he has made his own opposition to substantial tuition increases clear and well-known, by failing to effectively communicate his views and actions to the student body at large, he has not carried the added weight of nearly 27,000 allies with him.

Had he but empowered U students to rally along with him against the legislators seeking to bump the price of higher ed, it would not have been just his voice protesting the action, the voices of all students.

Perhaps it might not have ultimately made a difference, but it certainly would have been more difficult to ignore.

This year’s candidates to assume Lowe’s spot would do well to keep this in mind when the same issue comes up again next year.