Three of the top four Student Government offices for next year stand uncontested — Student Senate president, student body treasurer and student chief justice.
Senate president was contested until the Elections Commission’s decision to approve the withdrawal of candidate Mike Alston for SSP after he had some issues with his joint campaign with Student Body President Bobby Mills.
As it stands, the candidates for student body president are John Coggin, a senior in communication; Jay Dawkins, a junior in civil engineering; John Mickey, a junior in business management; Mills, a junior in political science and economics; and Ty Roach, a senior in biological sciences.
Current Student Senate President Greg Doucette, a senior in computer science who is running for re-election, is the sole candidate for SSP. Senate Tuition and Fees Committee Chairman Scott Lassiter, a sophomore in political science, is the sole candidate for SBT. And Chief Justice Lock Whiteside, a graduate student in social studies education who is running for a third term, is the sole candidate for chief justice.
According to previous student body officers, this scenario is not a norm and all officers from 2005 – 2008 except the 2005 – 2006 chief justice have weighed in their opinions on what caused this abnormality.
Questions1. How many people ran against you during your race?2. What did you think of the competition and the differences in the number of candidates who ran for your position your year as opposed to the number of candidates who ran for the same position this year? 3. Three of the top four Student Government offices are uncontested this year, what kind of message do you feel this sends to the student body and how do you think this can be prevented in the future if it needs to be prevented?
Whil “The Pirate Captain” PiavisStudent Body President in 2005 – 2006
1. Three.2. I thought they were all silly land-lovers.3. I think that having the three positions go unopposed that there was some sort of lack of interest. That could be from them having not done too much within the Senate or the treasury. I’m sure the judicial [board] did pretty good, but they’re more restrictive on who can run.
Forrest HintonStudent Senate President in 2005 – 2006
1. Two.2. Competition is an important element in the electoral process. Competition challenges candidates to scrutinize their own ideas, to determine the needs of the student body and to run campaigns that are ethical and engaging. Many student body officers in past years have become frustrated with Student Affairs administrators who do not allow students to freely govern themselves and make students feel that they have no voice in University decisions. 3. When candidates run unopposed for student leader positions, the public perception is that Student Government is an organization that is closed to members outside of its circle. It makes Student Government look elitist and unaccountable. In the future, student body officers must make a commitment to train and grow future leaders within the organization.
Seneca TomsStudent Body Treasurer in 2005 – 2006
1. One.2. I think competition was really good because it pushed me harder and it encourage me to go out and meet more people. And also, it gave me the opportunity to set myself apart from the other person what I was going to do differently.3. I don’t think it can be prevented. I think first is pushing more involvement. Then there would be more people willing to run for those positions. I don’t think it’s an issue of promotion. I think it’s an issue of education on the role Student Government can play in improving students’ lives.
Will QuickStudent Body President in 2006 – 2007
1) First time — 3, Second time — 22) I thought it was good across the board both times. Every year, I thought it was good competition. Everyone was well-qualified on paper. I think that having choices is a better alternative than having one person on the ballot. 3) A lot of responsibility to young people to come along around falls on the leadership of Student Government. Even one incumbent running is not normal. It’s certainly not what’s been done in my time here. I don’t think it’s a huge negative or anything. I’d like for students to have more choice because if students have to make a choice on who their leaders are for the next year, they may actually get more involved in what the issues are and pay more attention.
Zach AdamsStudent Senate President in 2006 – 20071) Two.2) Having two opponents when running for Senate president definitely pushed me to continuously develop my platform. For one, it seems to be a very young Student Senate, which means less developed leadership.3) I think it can be perceived in two different ways — one is that people don’t want to have to run against the candidates that have filed and the other would be that there aren’t many willing candidates available. Student Government needs to make sure they are developing leaders from positions such as committee chairs.
Adam ComptonStudent Body Treasurer in 2006 – 20071) One.2) Competition is a great thing for any race. I think it’s essential and it makes you appreciate the position more. Competition is essential to letting students choose who they want to lead. . A lot of times you can correlate people’s campaigns with how well they do in office. I definitely think that we’ve seen year after year the student body treasurer’s name being dragged through the mud. It gets very little credit and has to deal with all the problems.3) No organization can continue to move forward without new leaders, without fresh leaders, without change. That’s where some of our leadership failed this year, myself included. Instead you have student leaders that continue to run for re-election.
Bobby MillsStudent Body President in 2007 – 2008, running for re-election
1. Four.2. Competition makes you better. I think everyone has worked hard and is fully engaged. Everybody probably deserves to win, but it’s going to come down to who votes for me [for reelection].3. Competition always breeds better candidates. The message is we need to get more people involved in different engagements. We need to evaluate the requirements for the positions of student body treasurer and student chief justice.
Greg Doucette, Student Senate President in 2007 – 2008, running for re-election
1. One.2. I’m fine with competition. I think competition is important to make sure I’m accountable, and in all honesty, it’s important to see where the student body stands. I really don’t think this year was all that different because Mike [Alston] did file to run [against me]. We come from different philosophies within Student Government, but I thought it was going to be a challenging but productive race.3. I don’t think it necessarily sends a bad message this year because you have a record number of people filing for Student Senate. We’ve got freshmen all over the place and these folks as well as the sophomores are going to be leaders for next year’s Senate.
David FoxxStudent Body Treasurer 2007 – Jan. 30 2008
1. One.2. Anybody would like to run unopposed, but it was good; it was healthy. It was great having somebody really competent running against me. You have somebody there who’s confronting you and challenging you. Once you win, you feel a sense of accomplishment because you had somone there with you battling. 3. It’s not as unusual for chief justice to be unopposed because you have to be chosen to be on the judicial board. But the thing is that we’re lucky this year because the people that are running unopposed … we’re confident in them.
Jason SmithStudent Body Treasurer 20081. N/A. He came in after Foxx’s resignation.2. Generally, I do believe it is a good thing for races to have as many contestants as possible because it really does force candidates to get themselves out there and to interact with future constituents. But on Scott [Lassiter’s] basis, he’s done a great job interacting with students, students organizations, student leaders and bringing forth an enthusiasm that is necessary to do well at this position.
3) What it shows the student body is that involvement is necessary and if people feel there is a problem that the races are uncontested, then they need to run in the future, but the possibilities of getting involved without an elected position are numerous.
Lock WhitesideStudent Chief Justice in 2006 – 2007, 2007 – 2008, running for re-election1. One [both years].2, Competition is always good. If you win the position, it makes you appreciate it more and not take it for granted. It gave us an opportunity to provide two differing views for the student body. The reason I’m unopposed this year is because more than half of the board are first year students and all of the judicial assistants are graduating this year.3. Coming from Student Government, we know why these positions are uncontested, but the average student, I don’t think they’d know why. This is actually the first year that this many student body offices are being uncontested. If we have a parttern of this, then yes, we need to make some changes.
