Two pairs of experienced Student Government Association members have announced their candidacies for the positions of president and vice president. Junior Adam Brittin is campaigning for the presidency in tandem with junior Alison Maier, while sophomore Erin Barefoot is running with junior Susannah Cobb.
“Our biggest thing is that SGA should be made more available to students,” Brittin said. He and Maier would set up a major web site with club sites, Eastern news and possibly student sites. They also intend to send out two email updates each month and hold monthly meetings in individual dorms.
Student retention is one of the biggest issues for Barefoot and Cobb.
“We want to make Eastern a place people want to stay at,” Barefoot said. To that end, they plan to talk to students and invite lots of input from outside the SGA.
“We do have some pull,” Cobb said. “If we talk about things, the administration listens.”
Bringing the SGA back to its former prominence is one of Brittin’s goals.
“I think the SGA has rolled back a bit over the last year and a half,” Brittin said. One of the new ways he thinks the SGA should branch out is through helping fund intramural athletics, which has recently grown tremendously.
“We’re very motivated, very passionate about the SGA,” Maier said.
Both groups talked about the availability of computers in the library and in residence halls as a top priority.
Barefoot and Cobb would also work toward making Eastern appealing to prospectives as “on the cutting edge.”
“We just want Eastern to be thought of as nothing less than a university,” Cobb said.
Barefoot and Cobb also want to focus on promoting on-campus life for upperclassmen. They support the idea of using the planned new dorm as an upperclass-only residence.
Barefoot was the first-year class president last year and now serves as the Executive Board parliamentarian. Cobb is a junior class senator.
Brittin has served as first-year class senator, sophomore class president and currently as Executive Board treasurer. Maier was a sophomore class senator last year and is a junior class senator this year.
Voting for president and vice president is done separately, so the fact that each of these pairs is running together is purely an unofficial relationship.
The rest of the SGA positions will be up for election as well, including the Executive Board, class representatives and class senators. The application deadline for running for a position is today at 4 p.m.
SGA Elections for 2005-06 school year
Speech Night: Monday, April 25Voting: Wednesday, April 27 to Friday, April 29
Mikaela Brown 
Sophia Hunter 
Jayme Fisher