SWAT’s issue stances:

Dounda’s opening: It’s important for it to open on-time and provide more opportunities to students. Classes have been scheduled in it for the fall and a delay would be devastating.

Counseling Center: Funding needs to be increased and services need to be more visible to the student body to avoid unfortunate tragedies on campus.

New Athletic Director: We need to support all the pursuits of the department, but at the same time, keep students aware of any fee changes.

Tuition: Eastern is still one of the more affordable Illinois state schools, and student government has very little control over the tuition process. Therefore keeping students educated as to where tuition goes and why it’s being increased is crucial.

Campus Master Plan: The plan will be completed eventually in a long-term scenario. The steam plant and the textbook rental relocation are reasonable short term goals to support and follow up on.

The Students Wanting Action Today party officially announced its candidates for the April Student Government election.

Bobbie Mitchell is running for student body president. Mitchell was recently appointed to the Student Senate for his first term after transferring from Lincoln Trail College.

Mitchell said he was student body president at the community college for two years.

When creating SWAT he recruited non-senate involved students as the executive board candidates.

“The reason why these people were brought from outside student government is because we’re trying to change the image and direction of student government on this campus,” Mitchell said. “Before you can change the image, you have to change its perspectives.”

Eric Wilber will be running for executive vice president. Wilber is a member of the Apportionment Board, is the student representative on the Charleston City Council, and is an intern for Illinois Rep. Chapin Rose.

Wilber said when the senate is divided on topics the two sides usually represent senators who are engaged in activities and senators who are building resumes.

Mitchell agreed with Wilber. “Student Government is driven to pick sides on very controversial and emotional issues such as cultural diversity,” Mitchell said. “There’s also a big divide between the senators who actually work for the students and those who just like being senators.”

SWAT wants to increase student government’s visibility and relationships with registered student organizations on campus.

“The two biggest weaknesses with student government right now is its inability to follow through with its plans, and we lack a professional image,” Mitchell said. “The senators and execs may have a professional image, but student government as a whole does not.”

SWAT has developed a plan to unite students campus-wide. The program would take a select group of freshmen, who will be nominated by resident assistants, and train them with current leaders of Registered Student Organizations.

Mitchell said the new students would get exposed to leadership qualities much earlier than random participation would yield. The new students and current officers would work on resolving hypothetical scenarios and would go on retreats to teach organization process and responsibility.

Once the freshmen graduate from the program, they can take executive positions in Greek organizations, athletic teams, clubs, and RHA. Mitchell said the program would help reduce executive turnover within RSOs, thus making organizations stronger.

The program would also expose future leaders of a variety of campus activities to each other to prompt teamwork among organizations, Mitchell said. The involvement of RSOs raises a funding question, because AB cannot allocate funding to non-fee based organizations.

Mitchell said he would have to ask for a large volunteer base and also negotiate for co-sponsorships among the participating organizations.

All five executive board candidates have said they requested applications from the Student Activities Center. Mitchell said the group is still busy collecting signatures for their petitions, but now that candidates have been chosen, the applications will be submitted shortly.

Laurel Fuqua, student activities center receptionist, said five of her 50 applications have been distributed. Applications became available on Monday and will be due on April 1.

Rick Kambic can be reached at 581-7942 or at rwkambic@eiu.edu.