The Students’ Association is preparing for this year’s elections and are encouraging students to run for officer positions.

“My greatest hope is that in this upcoming election a lot of people run because competition brings excellence,” Benac said.

Dylan Benac, senior political science major from Boerne and SA president, has served as vice president and president in his time at ACU.

“This role is more of a lifestyle than just a position,” Benac said.

Benac graduates in May, but he is running the elections as the election co-chair.

“You have to be prepared to take the fall and be responsible for the actions of your team, but also be able to treasure the success of even one person,” Benac said. “It’s not that we want perfect people in office; perfect people don’t exist, but we do want the best candidate to, in essence, be in office.”

Benac has set up an online voting system this year, which differs from the methods used in previous years where students had to vote in the Campus Center.

Students will be emailed on the day of elections with the link to the website that will allow them to vote.

Benac plans to visit social clubs and other student organizations to encourage students to run.

“Some of the most vibrant leaders on our campus are not involved in SA right now; they’re involved in things that they’re passionate about and I think a lot of them could easily become passionate about leading the student body,” Benac said.

Benac said he is eager to reach out to potential candidates.

“Whoever the next treasurer will be, I am fully prepared to tell them exactly how to do my job and how to improve my job,” said J.P. Ralston, senior financing and accounting major from Plano and SA treasurer. “There is never a perfect person, there is always improvement on the position.”

SA will hold an interest meeting on Thursday, March 20 at 4 p.m. on the first floor of the Campus Center in the SA office conference room.

At the interest meeting, students will receive petitions and will be given a week to obtain 10 percent of the student body’s signatures.

After students achieve their petitions, they are free to put up campaigns.

If students meet the requirements, including classification, GPA and overall good standing with the University, they will be able to run.

“You don’t need to be a finance and accounting major to run for my position,” Ralston said.

Specific majors are not required to run for any of the positions available.

“Get a group of guys, get out there and get excited about the election process,” Ralston said.

For more information, look up the SA Facebook page at www.facebook.com/acustudents

“More than anything, I think that this should be an exciting time on our campus,” Benac said.