SGB announces three presidential candidates

‘ ‘ ‘ For now, the competition for next year’s Student Government Board presidency will be a… ‘ ‘ ‘ For now, the competition for next year’s Student Government Board presidency will be a three-way race. ‘ ‘ ‘ Yesterday, 16 students turned in election materials and are now preparing to run for Pitt’s 2009 student government. ‘ ‘ ‘ Daniel Gore of College Democrats, SGB allocations chair Kevin Morrison and current board member Amanda Reed registered to run for president of SGB. ‘ ‘ ‘ New candidates for board are Jonathan Adams, Lance Bonner, Andrew Freeman, Max Greenwald, Katlyn Jennings, Alexa Jennings, Katherine Marchetti, Kieran O’Leary, Joseph Rendemonti, Charles Shull, Alicia Simpson and Daniel Tully. ‘ ‘ ‘ Current board member Nila Devanath is running for re-election. ‘ ‘ ‘ Next month, Pitt students will be able to vote for their picks online at the my.pitt.edu Web portal. ‘ ‘ ‘ In the annual election, students can vote for five board candidates and one president, said elections committee chair Patrick Moroney in an e-mail. ‘ ‘ ‘ To qualify to run, students must have more than a 2.5 cumulative quality point average, a petition with 200 signatures and a statement about their intention to run, as well as a longer personal statement, said Moroney. ‘ ‘ ‘ He said that although the deadline to sign out an election packet and turn it in ended 5 p.m. yesterday, the election committee will accept late bids for candidacy, as long as students get an additional 200 signatures and explain why they were late. ‘ ‘ ‘ He said that these elections are important for all Pitt students, especially student organizations, since SGB is responsible for allocating about $2.4 million from the Student Activities Fee to organizations throughout the fiscal year. ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘If you don’t feel your group gets enough funding, or if your group doesn’t get any money from the SGB, you should take this into consideration when deciding to run or vote,’ said Moroney. ‘ ‘ ‘ During the election, the candidates will be allowed to form slates of three. For instance, two board member candidates and a presidential candidate, or three prospective board members. ‘ ‘ ‘ Last year, current board members Gary Sanderson and Lacee Ecker ran with current president Sumter Link on the ‘Students First’ slate. ‘ ‘ ‘ He said that the top eight vote-getting board member candidates and the presidential nominee who gets the most votes will form the 2009 SGB. ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘With the right people in place, the board has serious potential to improve the lives of Pitt students,’ said Moroney. ‘ ‘ ‘ Last year, 3,401 students out of 17,246 eligible voters ‘- undergraduates not enrolled in the College of General Studies ‘- voted for SGB president, according to a Pitt News article.