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SGA Election Endorsements
Part of this is because students do not know who the candidates are, what they stand for and why they should vote for them. Many have no basis for judgment, and don’t feel inclined to vote.

As a service to the community, the members of the Skiff editorial board interviewed all 10 students running for office. After careful deliberation, the Skiff endorsed a candidate for each position. The Skiff did not have any litmus test for granting its endorsement, but rather wanted to give each candidate an opportunity to convince the editorial board to support his or her platform.

The Skiff did, however, favor students who were experienced in SGA, had a clear vision of what they wanted to accomplish and had realistic expectations.

These are the consensus endorsements of the Skiff editorial board. We feel they are the best choices to lead the student body next year.

We hope you consider these candidates Tuesday but ultimately make up your own mind.

PRESIDENT
The Skiff endorses Brad Thompson to be the next president of the Student Government Association.

Thompson has the experience, vision and innovative ideas necessary to lead the student body next year.

While most of the candidates for other offices ran on vague and undefined platforms, Thompson had specific proposals. Most of these were realistic and reasonable. If elected, Thompson would like to lobby the administration to renovate the Student Center by opening up the basement so student organizations can have a place to meet. He would support committing $10,000 of SGA General Reserve Funds to designate a place for students to “hang out” that may have pool tables and other goodies.

Thompson’s 2 1/2 years of experience in SGA is extensive. He is vice president of programming council and was SGA secretary last spring. He has chaired the permanent improvement, finance and dining committees. He is also involved in several organizations.

Thompson’s combination of vision and experience make him the Skiff’s choice for SGA president.

VP OF HOUSE
In a very diverse group of candidates, Katie Gordon stands out to the Skiff editorial board as the best choice to be the next vice president of the House of Student Representatives.

Gordon has served in the House for three semesters, including two semesters as the Academic Affairs chairwoman.

Under her leadership, the committee has created numerous core curriculum reports to the Faculty Senate. This information was made available online for everyone, a symbol of the importance of feedback from all.

Her committee has also worked on the honor code, because she says she wants students to take the responsibility for their actions, and regulate honestly in the classroom. Her committee has made progress toward a code and found in a survey that 90 percent of about 150 students surveyed are in favor of one.

Motivating other chairpersons is a main component to being the vice president. Since Gordon has served as a chairwoman and member of the executive board for two semesters, she understands their viewpoint.

One of her goals includes creating House representation among the academic departments. She also wants to have a weekly newsletter from the House to their constituents.

Andrea Reed, another vice president candidate, has experience, but her failure to make any strong stances bothered us.

Rodney Thomas cares about the issues and has shown courage by being the only candidate to oppose the student fee increase. However, he lacks experience.

Bill Morrison supports devoting 5 percent of the House’s budget toward advertising in an effort to increase awareness. While this is a great idea, the rest of Morrison’s platform was of little substance.

VP OF PROGRAMMING
The Skiff endorses CiAnn Ardoin for Programming Council vice president.

Although Ardoin is the sole candidate for the position, her experience as Student Government Association secretary has put her in contact with many organizations across campus —networking that will help her plan programming.

“I really want to break the walls of segregation in organizations,” she said. “Everybody seems to have their stereotypical programs with what they want to do. We have to let organizations come together and co-program. I think students will be more comfortable if that happens.”

To combat PC’s perennial problem of running out of money, Ardoin supports a student fee increase. She would like to use the added funds to bring in big name acts, although she was unclear how she would accomplish that.

She said she would also like to spread awareness of PC’s resources through word of mouth, its Web site, a detailed newsletter and by using the SGA’s communications committee.

Ardoin’s enthusiasm is apparent. The Skiff recommends Ardoin for PC vice president.

SECRETARY
The Skiff endorses Todd Clower for Student Government Association secretary because of his experience.

We also think the vision in his platform makes him well-qualified for the position.

Clower has a history with SGA which includes spending a year on the finance committee and a stint as chairman of the residential concerns committee.

His main concern is to increase the amount of communication between students and administration. He is an advertising/public relations major which furthers his qualifications for the office.

Clower displays a special sensitivity to international students, commuter students and transfer students, whose attendance is lowest at SGA-sponsored student events. He has plans to try to make SGA-sponsored events more accommodating to these students’ needs while continuing to appeal to students who live on campus.

While Feleceia Benton shows outstanding enthusiasm, her lack of SGA experience was a concern. With more experience, we feel she could be an excellent candidate in the future.

TREASURER
The Skiff endorses Chris Mattingly for SGA treasurer.

Mattingly, a junior international finance and accounting major, would bring several semesters of SGA experience to the position.

He has been a member of SGA for 2 1/2 years and has been parliamentarian, co-dining services chairman, elections and regulations committee chairman and a Milton Daniel Hall representative.

Mattingly is also the vice president of finance for his fraternity. As he said, given this experience, running for treasurer is the most logical next step.

Mattingly is aware of the problem of leftover funds in SGA’s overall budget while Programming Council’s budget often falls short of the money. He supports a student fee increase, saying it would provide another $120,000 for SGA to program and meet its goals.

If the fee increase is supported in the student referendum, Mattingly favors supporting higher-quality programming for PC. He also said he would like to allocate funds to send more organizations to conferences and conventions.