Polls for the SGA elections open today. Students have the opportunity to determine who will hold executive and legislative positions for the next academic year.
In addition to seats in the Undergraduate House of Representatives, students will also be electing the new undergraduate and graduate student body presidents and vice presidents.
Kristie Champlin, Robert McEntyre and Alina Staskevicius are battling for the position of undergraduate student body president. Linda Harley and Rick McKeon are the candidates for graduate student body president.
Undergraduate vice presidential candidates are Brian-Paul Gude and Parker Hancock. Justin Chapman is running unopposed for the graduate vice presidential position.
The polls will open at 1 p.m. and close at 4 p.m. on April 8. The election results will then be announced by 7 p.m. in the Student Center Commons. If one candidates fails to win the majority vote, a runoff election would be held from April 10 to April 15.
As part of the elections process, the undergraduates held a moderated debate on March 31 in the Student Center Ballroom. Each presidential and vice presidential candidate got a chance to address the group of 30 to 40 students.
These were briefings were followed be a series of questions aimed at the presidential or vice presidential candidates. The questions revolved around topics like improvements to be made to SGA, student life, communication, the campus portal and football ticketing.
Students were also allowed to pose questions to the candidates. There were mentions of improving the class registration system and challenging the candidates to name their number one priority to list the SGA’s website.
The debate was moderated by Nick Wellkamp, current undergraduate student body president. The debate lasted just under one hour and finished with each candidate again being allowed a final moment to restate their election platform.
A recording of the debate can be found on the WREK Radio website at www.wrek.org/2009-sga-debate