Students signed up for student government positions and kicked off their campaigns during the Student Government filing meeting Tuesday.

Matt Jarvis, Leif Olson and Nate Miklas are running for Student Body President, with Emily Kinner, Collin Stipetich and Amos Parlock as their respective Vice Presidents. 

Student government filing allows students to identify what position they will be running for. Student Body president Duncan Waugaman said filing in person eliminates any possible error and allows each person running for the position to know who they are up against.

“It’s more of an equal playing ground because everyone is able to physically know at the same time who they’re up against and what’s going on,” Waugaman said.

Waugaman and vice president Isabelle Rogner opened the meeting with an information session.

Rogner said she encouraged those running to persuade their peers to vote in the election. Rogner said  there is a strong likelihood of the ballot including a levy to gauge student opinion on the proposed transportation system that would provide off-campus access for Marshall students.

“For you guys that are running, if that is something that you’re interested in, that’s pretty much going to be the fly or die if this is a continued project,” Rogner said.

Afterward, Waugaman and Rogner introduced election commissioners Gates Campbell and Alicia Kingery. According to Gates and Kingery, the role of the election commissioner is to help those who are running for student government positions.

“We’re both kind of figuring it out as we go,” Kingery said. “But I think our goal is to make it kind of organized so that’s what we’re trying to do to keep everybody happy and professional.”

Kingery distributed and read from a flyer consisting of election rules that all candidates must follow. These rules included the qualifications a candidate must meet, rules for campaigning and how to notify the election commission of a violation or file a complaint.

Afterwards, SGA advisor Matthew James spoke about the experience he had when running for student body president nine years ago. James said that those who compete in this election and lose should try again in the future.

“I want to tell you, the majority of you in this room will lose,” James said. “But you’re only losers if you allow that to define who you are.”

Waugaman, who will graduate in May and finish his two years as student body president, said he hears this year’s student body president election will be highly competitive.

“Whoever does end up being victorious in two weeks, I’m very proud of them and it’s a great feeling,” Waugaman said.

Students who filed to run will have two weeks to convince the student body that they are the candidate for their specific job. Voting for the Student Body Election takes place March 15 in the Memorial Student Center.

Jared Casto can be contacted at [email protected].