While the Student Government of four years ago released a list of their observations of presidential candidates, the Student Government of this year is relying on the two students on the search committee to represent the students.

Though several Student Government members attended open sessions with each candidate, Student Body President Hugh O’Hara said Monday it doesn’t seem right to make any recommendations if the Student Government as a whole did not know enough.

Several members who attended the sessions were very impressed with all three candidates.

Speaker of the Senate Joe Robbins Monday said the candidates fielded questions about international studies, shared governance and getting more money in the student sessions.

Robbins thought all candidates answered questions well and were each professional and qualified.

“Each of them could do justice to Eastern,” he said, adding that it would be hard to choose one over another.

O’Hara said he couldn’t choose one either, and the committee is faced with quite a challenge in picking the right candidate.

“I’d really be happy with any of them,” he said.

Jessica Catto, student vice president for academic affairs, said she was only able to attend sessions for Philip Conn and John Cavanaugh, but was impressed with both.

She said Conn seemed to be all about the students, and was impressed that Cavanaugh had increased minority enrollment at the University of North Carolina-Wilmington.

During the search for Eastern’s eighth president, the Student Government drafted an unofficial list of strengths and weaknesses of each candidate to present to the search committee.

This year, the three presidential candidates were on campus for interviews the week of March 18. Eastern’s Board of Trustees is scheduled to meet with the search committee in the middle of April and are expected to announce the president at their April 29 meeting.

Livingston Alexander, vice president for academic affairs at Kean University, was the first presidential candidate to visit campus on March 18 and 19. Philip Conn, vice chancellor for special programs at University of Tennessee-Knoxville, visited on March 20 and 21. The last candidate, John Cavanaugh, provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs at University of North Carolina-Wilmington, was on campus March 22 and 23.