The Omnibus

Issue date: 4/13/07 Section: News

Media Credit: Zach Henderson President Ivry Karamitros

Elections were held Wednesday, April 11 for the offices of Student Government Association president, vice president, secretary and treasurer. For the first time in years, there were contested races for each office.
The candidates for president were senior Ivry Karamitros and current sophomore class president David Kellogg. Vice presidential candidates were sophomore Jonathan Spradling and current SGA publicity chair, junior Kristen Blinzler. Freshman Mally Ulm and current sophomore class vice president Jessica Boucher vied for the office of secretary while current freshman class president Josh Miller took on junior class president Chris Dutschmann for the office of treasurer.
Having campaigned the first part of the week, all candidates took part in a debate session in Goodson Student Union Tuesday, April 10. Housing Coordinator Chris Keller moderated the debate.
Candidates were asked questions such as "Why are you running for this position?", "What qualifies you to hold the position you are running for?" and "What issues are you passionate about, and how will you address them when elected?"
Though few were present at the debate, it was beneficial for attendees to be able to hear the candidates' answers to not only the moderator's questions, but also questions from the floor.
All candidates showed impressive qualities at the debate, which left potential voters both pleased to see that any position would be filled by a competent individual, and a sense of anxiety over which qualified candidate to choose for each office.
For the office of treasurer, Miller drew in 152 votes, while Dutschmann scraped by with 184 votes to get the win.
Ulm also drew in 152 votes for the office of secretary, a close second to Boucher's 183. Spradling drew in a meager 92 votes, dwarfed by Blinzler's 247. For the office of president, Kellogg pulled in a healthy 155 votes, just under Karamitros' 198.
The SGA cabinet for the 2007-2008 school year will be: president Ivry Karamitros, vice president Kristen Blinzler, secretary Jessica Boucher and treasurer Chris Dutschmann.
"I am proud to have the opportunity to serve as the student body psresident at SBU," said Karamitros. "I am open to any concern, issue or changes that students would like to see at SBU. Our students are wonderful people, and I would love to be a blessing to them."
The newly elected cabinet will take office April 23.
One of the main issues on the docket for 2007 is the re-structuring of Student Government as a whole.
SGA hopes to be able to have the cabinet offices of president, vice president, secretary and treasurer be the governing body of SGA, then have heads of committees such as major events, concerts, student affairs and publicity be a separate entity from cabinet.
"There is a re-structuring process that needs to be voted on," said current president, senior Laura Towner. "This is to help SGA function more as a governing body and for a potential activities council to focus more on quality activities."
The vote for the re-structuring of SGA will take place April 18, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. in front of the SGA office. Elections for class officers will take place April 18. The deadline for class officer candidate petitions is 5 p.m. April 16. Petitions must include 25 signatures from the class the candidate will run for.

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