News

Election ballot full

SGA presidency only contested position for Oct. 24-30 vote

By Matt Quane
mquane@mscd.edu

Two students will run for the position of president during the Metro Student Government Assembly special election, which takes place at the end of October.

Inayet Hadi and Aaron "Jack" Wylie will be on the ballot. The pair was to be joined by appointed Senator Christopher Anders Minter, who has since withdrawn from the race, citing personal reasons.

The ballot will be full, with 11 senatorial candidates running uncontested for the same number of available senate seats. The SGA must have at least 12 elected senators on the student senate. Four senators were elected last spring.

Senate candidates are: Cortland Dunn, Daniel Head, Danielle Kelly, Gary Lefmann, Akaduchieme Odifu-Egbune, Gabriel Romero, Ryen Schimerman and appointed Senators Dana Allen, Jamie Bair, Josh Holle, and Kurt White.

Age: 22. Major: International Studies, Class: senior.

Experience: Appointed as SGA vice president of student services in 2002, moved to vice president of student fees, founded Metro student organization Students for Afghanistan Development in 2003. Ran for Student Advisory Committee to the Auraria Board Representative in 2005.

Hadi said he wants the SGA to have control of its own affairs through autonomy and wants to minimize administrative interference.

He said he would like to "bring to life" the shared governance policies that are being pushed by the Metro Board of Trustees, while having members of the SGA deal directly with the trustees.

He said he feels that, as president, everything he says or does would be a representation of the students.

One of his first acts as president would be to reform the Election Commission and the election process as a whole. Hadi said the first step in reforming the Election Commission would be to appoint a new commission chair.

"The Election Commission exists to make it easy on students to run for office and to ensure a transparent and clean election," Hadi said. "But now I feel as if the Election Commission is out to destroy my love for public service."

Age: 20. Major: Political Science. Class: sophomore.

Experience: president of the Political Science Association of Metro, spokesperson for the Take Back Metro Coalition, Sierra Club fund-raiser.

Wylie said he wants to build a relationship between the SGA and the student body. "The student government needs to go out and speak with students, hold forums with students, professors and administrators, and anything else to get the student body involved in their college," Wylie said.

Wylie said the lack of student representation was a major influence in his decision to run for president. "Representing the students of Metro means actively seeking out students' concerns and then voicing those concerns to the administration and the state legislature. It means stepping out of the SGA office up in the Tivoli and going to the students," Wylie said.

He said he feels that funding for Metro is key to the success of the school and its students. "Metro is the college of opportunity, but if we become complacent, if we think only of ourselves and our short time that we will spend here, Metro would cease to be a college of opportunity," Wylie said.

"As a member of the SGA, it would be my duty to ensure that every legal avenue is taken, to ensure that Metro and its students receive as much funding and assistance as possible."