SGA election race kicks off

    The campaign race started Monday for students contending for Student Government Association executive and nonexecutive positions.
    Jonathan Burdon, junior from Marion, Ky., is campaigning for SGA president with his running mate Robin Phelps, junior from Cape Girardeau, Mo. Burdon ran for SGA secretary in 2007 and for president in 2008, but was not elected.         He said he has high hopes for this term running with Phelps.
    “Robin and I complement each other,” Burdon said. “Where I am weak in certain areas, she is strong.”
    Burdon said his visions for SGA are to help create an identity within the Murray State campus while creating unity among the members.
    Burdon and Phelps want to re-organize the Corp group system, which mandates each senator regularly attend organization’s meetings as representative of SGA.
    “I want to hold the senators responsible for attending the meetings,” Burdon said. “If they were told there would be consequences if they did not attend, that might get them to go. Executive council should also be in contact with student groups if they need help.”
    Burdon said he plans to create an interactive Web site, which would allow every student to give their input so SGA could better help represent the student body.
    “Kara has done a great job in leading SGA in the right direction,” Burdon said. “We want to take it to the next level. That is why we want to create the interactive Web site to represent all of the students.”
    Burdon said he thinks SGA should be a place where students go to get any information they need. He said he intends to create an atmosphere where students can feel confident about coming to SGA with any problems they need help with.
    “We want student workers who have to work in the SGA office trained to know everything about the campus,” Burdon said. “We need to create an identity that is there for the students.”
    Kara Mantooth, senior from Owensboro, Ky., and current SGA president, plans to run for re-election. Mantooth said her platform is different because the ideas she has for the student body are issues she has already raised.
    “There are several things in the works right now,” Mantooth said. “For instance, the Back the Book bill failed in the state Senate, but I am meeting with administrators and other key players involved in hopes to implement those same ideas at Murray State.”
    Another of Mantooth’s platforms involves setting up a Web master seat within the senate to make the SGA Web site more student-friendly.
    “There is an open chair in the Senate that I would like to see go towards a Web master,” Mantooth said. “Previously, we had PR students work on the Web site, but that really isn’t their job. Our Web site needs to be kept up-to-date and I think we should create a chair for a Web master.”
    Mantooth said her campaign strategy is different from her opponents’. She said she is not running with a partner because all the executive officers work together equally in SGA.
    “I respect Jonathan and Robin, but I am not going to run with a partner because each student votes for each individual officer and all of the officers work together,” Mantooth said.
    Mantooth said if anyone has any questions about her job as SGA president, or about SGA in general, to call, e-mail or stop by her office. She said she is here to represent students.
    “Whatever I am involved in, I always think of the students first,” Mantooth said. “I encourage as many students as possible to go vote.”
    The positions open for election are SGA president, vice-president, secretary, treasurer, three senators per academic college and eight senators-at-large.
    A student must have at least a 2.0 GPA to run for a senatorial position and 2.7 GPA to run for an executive position. SGA holds mandatory meetings at 5 p.m. Wednesday and each senator must work two hours per week in the SGA office once they are elected.
    Campaigning lasts for two weeks, with voting starting 9 a.m. April 20 to 9 a.m. April 22. Students may vote online at Racernet or msusga.com.
    The winners of the election will be announced at 5 p.m. April 22 during All Campus Sing. 
    Ashlee Cobb can be reached at ashlee.cobb@murraystate.
edu.