A debate will be taking place today at 7 p.m. in the Arcola-Tuscola room of the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union between the student executive vice president hopefuls.

There are four candidates vying for the student executive vice president position.

Christine Anderson, Blake Pierce, Neil Majd and Zach Samples all submitted their candidacy by Tuesday’s deadline.

Anderson, a senior communication disorders and sciences major, has worked on student government for about two years and has been the director of the elections committee and the Student Senate secretary.

“I have the organizational skills that will help the (student executive vice president), which is currently in shambles, become productive again,” Anderson said.

“I have worked closely with each executive member of the Student Senate and I learned a lot from all of them.”

Zach Samples, a sophomore history major with a teacher’s certification, was one of six senators to sign the legislation impeaching the former student executive vice president,

Aaron Wiessing.

“As a student senator, I took an oath to uphold the bylaws and the Constitution. The former (student executive vice president) was not doing his job according to the Constitution, which is why I chose to put my signature on the impeachment papers,” Samples said.

Those appointed to the student government executive positions have to uphold the Executive Rules.

Six student senators signed the impeachment resolution because they said Wiessing did not “uphold his duties as laid out in the Eastern Illinois University Student Action Team Bylaws,” “uphold his duties as laid out in the Eastern Illinois University Student Body Constitution,” or “uphold his duties as laid out in the Eastern Illinois University Student Senate Bill 08-09-01 ‘Student Lobbying Act Amendments.'”

Wiessing resigned during the Dec. 8 student government meeting.

“I hope the student body will turn out to hear the view of the various candidates,” Samples said.

Blake Pierce, a senior finance major, has been on the student government for three semesters and said he is looking forward to the upcoming debate.

“I will put the students first and support the interests of the student body even if they are not in line with my own,” he said.

Jarrod Scherle, the speaker of the student senate, said these debates will be different than the ones for the student senate speaker because the candidates will be debating each other instead of having students speak on their behalf.

“It’s a good way to showcase people’s strategies and how they operate especially since public speaking is so important to the position,” Student Body President Michelle Murphy said.

Murphy, a senior communications study major, said the newly elected student executive vice president will be seated Jan. 26 during the Student Senate meeting.

Nike Ogunbodede can be reached at 581-2812 or ovogunbodede@eiu.edu