The Students’ Association executive officer candidates have begun campaigning and debating to win votes as elections draw near. Students can vote Wednesday and Thursday from 11:30 a.m.-5 p.m in the Campus Center.
The SA debates were held on Monday night giving each candidate the chance to express their goals and qualifications to the student body.
Rebecca Dial, junior political science and financial management major from Lexington, S.C., is running unopposed for the position of executive president. Dial has served on SA since her freshman year, this past year as the chief developmental officer. Dial feels that this has prepared her for the president position.
“I had the opportunity to work on different events like Christmas Slam, the SA dance and a bunch of other things, and through that I’ve been able to build relationships with administrators, other student organizations and different departments,” Dial said, “I’ll be able to build those that next year.”
Dial has several specific ideas she would like to implement next year such as the concept of a Greatest Idea Challenge, a way for students to present ideas they would like to see on campus. A winner would be picked and have his or her idea put into action.
Dial said, “I think that would allow students to really thing about what they would like to see and put a lot of effort into that and also let SA gain some ideas.”
Also, Dial desires for SA to begin focusing on long term goals. She would like for a committee of students to plan goals for SA to accomplish down the road.
Dial said, “It would create more of a system of accountability in SA because you would be able to judge where SA is in those long term goals.”
Dylan Benac, junior political science major from Boerne, is also an uncontested candidate for the position of executive vice president. Benac possesses several ideas of ways to improve SA.
“What I envision is having accountability for our class officers. What I see is a failed system that isn’t having effective events driven towards those they are supposed to serve,” Benac said. “I wish to challenge next years officers to truly have desirable events and truly use the money granted to them.”
Benac would also like for SA to focus on bettering communications between students and administrators.
“I want communication to happen between the faculty, staff, students and administration. That’s something I really see a need for,” Benac said. “They need to listen, we need to talk more and SA needs to provide a means for communication.”
Joseph Austin, junior pre-law accounting major from Houston, and Heath Bracken, junior finance and marketing major from Salado, are both running for the executive treasurer position.
Austin has previously never been in SA but feels he is qualified for the job due to his past work experiences.
“I’ve never been in SA, but I have been on the other side of finances as the Spring Break Campaigns’ treasurer, and one thing I think we could all benefit from is really expanding ourselves by not just sticking in one area,” Austin said. “The previous treasurer, Carson Henley was able to train in financial operations and I’ve actually worked there a year and a half, so I feel I have the experience.”
Austin aspires to help make SA more fiscally responsible by analyzing the budget.
“One of the things I haven’t enjoyed during my time at ACU is seeing the budgets formed and student groups saying ‘oh, just double what you need, you’ll get half of that,'” Austin said. “I really want to know the student groups I’ll be working with, and I hope to expand these groups and to make even more groups on campus.”
Bracken has previously worked with SA as the chief financial officer and would like to continue what he has done this past year.
“I’ve had the chance and privilege to meet with student leaders and allocate funds to prepare the student budget for organizations on campus,” Bracken said. “I’ve gone through that process and I think I know all of the leaders. I’ve had the honor to really work with the students and see how that flow of things really work.”
