Editor’s Note: The Reflector will continue SA coverage between today and the Feb. 19 elections with profiles of candidates and articles about election issues.Students will hit the polls to vote on who will represent them next year on the Student Association Executive Council Feb. 19.
Positions filled will be president, treasurer and attorney general. The positions of vice president and secretary are uncontested.
The candidates running for SA president are junior general business administration major Braxton Coombs and senior biological engineering major Jeral Self. Both candidates currently serve on the Executive Council, Coombs as attorney general and Self as administrative liaison.
Running uncontested are junior secondary education and political science major Braxton Stowe for vice president and senior political science major Whitney Holliday for secretary.
For the position of SA treasurer, students will choose between juniors Sean Galligan, Will Moon and Ross Weems. Sophomores Blake Jeter and David Thorne will face off for the position of attorney general.
SA election commissioner Phillip Bass said he expects more than 1,000 voters to participate in the elections which will feature two polling places near the center of campus.
“There will be two polling locations,” Bass said. “One will be in the Mitchell Memorial Library main lobby, and the other will be in the Union in the Dawg House.”
The elections will follow the same format used in the past couple years. Students swipe their identification cards and vote on the computer, he said.
“It takes about a minute-and-a-half, and then you’re done,” Bass said.
In recent years, the SA has relied on candidates’ campaigns to raise interest in the elections, but this year there are plans to further capture student interest by including plans to conduct a debate a week before the election, he said.
“[The debate] will help let people know what these [candidates] are about and also help get the word out about the elections,” Bass said. “In the past with some of these elections, we let the fact that people are out campaigning just do the public relations, but we’re trying to do a little bit more this year.”
The SA serves as a governing body and as a representative for the students when working with the administration and faculty, said Jeremy Johnson, current SA President.
“It’s our job to be that liaison between the administration and faculty and the students,” Johnson said. “We’re there to bridge that gap and find out what the students want, and what are their concerns.”
The elections serve as a chance for students to choose who they want to represent them for the next year and decide who will best represent their wishes when handling issues facing MSU, Johnson said.
“[Students] are about to put in a new administration who will have a new focus and a new set of goals than [the previous administrations] had and so this is their chance to figure out which candidate best represents what they want and who will be the best advocate for students,” he said.
For some students, this will be the first time they will participate in SA elections.
These include sophomore civil engineering major Griffin Sullivan.
He said he would be more interested in the elections if he knew the candidates were campaigning on issues he is interested in.
“I don’t really know what they do. I just see the campaign billboards,” Sullivan said.
Undecided students are encouraged to learn about the candidates, Johnson said, and make sure they have a firm foundation of how the candidates might represent them in office.
“I would say to Joe Student who is out there: research the candidates,” he said. “They’re all available and they’re more than happy to tell you what they believe in and what they want or don’t want to see at Mississippi State.