SGA candidates prepare for elections
The election season has begun now across campus as parties have begun putting out their signs.
Wichita State students will see some new signs on campus this week: campaign posters.
Students running in the Student Government Association election started their campaigning at midnight on Saturday. Current SGA Legislative Director Darren Beckham wasted no time on getting his party’s signs scattered across campus.
Beckham said that in all of the campaigns he has been involved in, it has been a tradition to go out at midnight to get the signs up.
“It’s about having fun and getting the party excited,” Beckham said. “We got done around 1 a.m.”
Beckham is running for president on the Students Unite party ticket. His vice president running mate is current Director of Public Relations Brianna Kitchings.
Running opposite him on the Shockers Uniting Reality & Vision (SURV) party is current Chairman of Programming Sean McLemore. His vice president running mate is Senator Casey Donnell.
McLemore has yet to place signs on campus and said the matter remains to be determined. He said his party has no comment about the signs at this time.
Both presidential candidates are seniors and hold a leadership position within SGA. Although the candidates do share these similarities, they differ in many ways.
Beckham is a political science major with an emphasis in international studies and a minor in economics. McLemore is pursuing a bachelor’s in general studies in theatre, business and music with minors in sociology and political science.
Beckham said this was his year to run because of past SGA experience preparing him to lead.
“I have played a lot of supporting roles in SGA and in a lot of other campus organizations,” Beckham said. “It is now time to put those experiences and relationships to work for the student body.”
Beckham’s goals are to help represent the student body better through this time of transition and to improve SGA’s image.
“I want to be about making (SGA) a more serious organization whose core purpose is giving back to the students, not acting self-important or getting caught up in drama,” Beckham said.
While Beckham focuses on SGA’s image and responsibility toward the students, McLemore’s goals are focusing on helping Recognized Student Organizations, improving maintenance issues and increasing the diversity within SGA.
To help alleviate the maintenance issues on campus, McLemore hopes to make SGA a liaison between faculty and students and has “devised mechanisms that will create funds to start to alleviate the issue.”
McLemore also said that he hopes to make it easier for RSO’s to receive funding in order to create and maintain their organizations. He said that in the past, a solution was promised, but not fully delivered.
Along with these, McLemore hopes to make SGA a more diverse group that better represents the student body.
“The current SGA has become too selective or exclusive,” McLemore said. “The SGA should be as diverse as the student body it represents.”
Although elections can lead to conflict, both candidates hope to make the election amicable with as little conflict as possible.
“Sean and I have talked about keeping this campaign civil and fact-based,” Beckham said.
McLemore said he does not foresee any conflict, but that his focus is on the truth, which he says can sometimes bring conflict.
An unbiased third party group called the Election Commission will run the elections.
This election’s chief election commissioner is current Vice President Olivia Sullivan. Joining her to make up the Election Commission is Student Advocate Josh Raftopoulos, Sen. Brandon James and Sen. Matt Conklin.
The Election Commission oversees the entirety of the election including candidate forms, voting and even disciplinary action if necessary. Sullivan said that fines of up to $50 can be made for wrongdoings within the election and candidates can even be disqualified.
Sullivan is familiar with the elections process, having run twice on two different tickets as vice president. She won both times.
“I’m pretty aware of how (elections) work,” Sullivan said. “I’ve been working as chief election commissioner all year so I’m really familiar with the process.”
Two of the members of the Election Commission, Sen. James and Sen. Conklin have been chosen as holdover senators, meaning that along with being a part of the Election Commission, they will provide continuity to the association by acting as senators in the next term.
Elections will take place on April 24, 25 and 26.
