Three tickets will vie for student body president and vice president in tomorrow's election, the largest pool of candidates in three years.The three sets of running mates are Sarah Brown and Michelle Fitzgerald, Shay Jolly and Veronica Saavedra and Sarah Catherine White and Mary Pauline Moran,. White and Moran, both juniors, are running with the campaign slogan "Belles ring in change." "With Dr. Carol Mooney as our new president, the new apartments and a new student center coming to campus, we want to embrace the change, and we feel it's time for new student government representation," White said. "We've had a wonderful experience working together this year and would like to carry that on into next year as well. We know we are ready to take our involvement with student government to the next level."As the current junior class president and vice president, White and Moran said they have big plans for the future of Saint Mary's."Our platform really centers around the students," said White. "We want to work to energize student life, approach student's needs and concerns realistically, provide an approachable and welcoming student government and evaluate campus academics and relations between departments. We also believe we should recognize and integrate campus talent and athletics and enliven and recognize student's spiritual needs on campus."White has been involved in the Board of Governance Academic Standards committee, as well as serving as the Abroad chair her sophomore year and the Social Co-chair of the first-year board. She is majoring in Business, with a concentration in International Business and a minor in Italian. Moran has also held many positions in Saint Mary's politics. She is the current junior class vice president, and she was on the Student Government Association's constitution committee. Moran was the BOG Technology commissioner as a sophomore and worked on the first-year board to help design the Class of 2005 Web page. Moran is an MIS major with a concentration in Accounting. White and Moran said that the reasons to run for president and vice president are countless. "We have a passion for this school," said White. "We feel we represent a wide variety of students here, and people have enjoyed what we've done so far. We are always up for a challenge, and this certainly is one, an exciting one."White also said she and Moran feel all students are a part of student government."All students at Saint Mary's play a role as a leader, whether silent or for all to see," said White. It would be an honor to represent the talent and energy of all the students that lead us. This is something that is in our gut, that gets us energized, and it's something we would love to do." Brown, a junior and the current student body vice president, and Fitzgerald, a sophomore, said they would be qualified candidates. "I think Michelle and I have a good combination of experience and fresh ideas," said Brown. "We're not opposed to new ideas, and we're not stuck in an old system. We have good relationships with the faculty, staff and students at Saint Mary's, and we also have a good feel for what is current."Brown and Fitzgerald's platform places much emphasis on improvements both in and out of student government."We would really like to continue to spread out the leadership roles in student government and have the committees take on more responsibility to keep the leadership balanced and fair," said Brown. "We would also like to continue to expand student government and look for new ways to involve more students. Reaching out to a broader base of students is also important to us because we want everyone to feel as though they are a part of government at Saint Mary's."Brown has served this year as the student body vice president. She is a philosophy and political science double major. Fitzgerald is currently serving as the sophomore class president. She is majoring in political science and religious studies. "We've seen ourselves doing this for a long time, and we like that as the president and vice president, we get to be involved in all aspects of student government," said Brown. "Both of us really enjoy the policy-making aspect of student government, and we're excited to expand on that."Jolly and Saavedra, both juniors, believe they have fresh ideas for the future of Saint Mary's."We want to work to incorporate all aspects of Saint Mary's life like sports and clubs into one community where we can all share it," said Jolly. "We want to continue our connections with Notre Dame and Holy Cross and extend it further to the entire community of South Bend. ... And with the new administration coming in, we'd love to be there to both students and to Mooney and her administration to make the transition as smooth as possible."Serving as the current Residence Hall Association president, Jolly also serves as a BOG executive. She served as class treasurer her sophomore year and has been the welcome committee chairwoman. Recently, she served on the apartment committee, helping to make decisions about the campus apartments. Jolly is a communications major.Saavedra is the Student Diversity Board president and also serves as a BOG executive. She is majoring in business. "We've both been very involved in BOG this year, and we're seen the behind-the-scenes work that goes into it," said Jolly. "We've really enjoyed our time and the large role we played in student government this year. Veronica and I have a lot of the same ideas, and we're ready to make Saint Mary's a place for today and the future."Jolly said that she and Saavedra are capable for the job."Together with the students, we want to make Saint Mary's into a wonderful community that everyone, everywhere, knows about and loves," said Jolly. "We want to make this a place where the students know that this is our school, and this is the place we can call our home."
