The Student Senate will have elections for executive positions starting next week.

Candidates running for student body president are Luke Young, Felicia Wagner and Jonathan Williams.

Derek Pierce and Juan Neveraz are running for executive vice president. Both Tarve’a Durant and Rebecca Cash are running for student vice president of academic affairs. Zac Cohen is the only candidate running for student vice president of student affairs.

A debate was held to help the candidates establish their platforms on Tuesday.

Current Student Body President Catie Witt said she is excited about the amount of people running.

“Since I’ve been here I’ve never seen more than one or even two people run for Student Body President, so to see three is really exciting,” Witt said. “In the debate yesterday they all seemed very qualified.”

Derek Pierce, student vice president for academic affairs, said while most candidates running for executive positions have years of experience in student government, there are candidates new to this organization.

These include freshman senator Zac Cohen, Rebecca Cash and Jonathan Williams, who are completely new to student government and Juan Neveraz, who was only on Student Senate for a brief period.

“In my opinion, anyone can really handle the job, but it really helps to have insider information and experience with the job,” Pierce said.

Pierce said it is helpful to know what meetings to attend and to already be in close contact with the administration.

Voting is set for Monday and Tuesday. Students can vote in the election though Panthermail.

Also discussed at the meeting was a new registered student organization called the Yarning Society.

“They do a whole bunch of different things. It’s not just with sewing and yarn,” Witt said. “They donate a lot of things to nursing homes and everything. They also donate headbands for premature babies.”

Witt said on top of this, the group tie-dyes and is willing to help instruct other RSOs on these skills if they want to do projects to help the community.

Witt said the It’s on Us campaign, to raise awareness and educate people on sexual assault was also discussed. The campaign will be held with events throughout the month of April including a dodgeball tournament, bowling and several other activities to help promote provide education and awareness about the topic of sexual assault.

A game of bowling called Strike Out Against Sexual Assault is scheduled from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday, April 12 in the Bowling Lanes of the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union. It will be $1 per game and $1 for shoes. The first fifty people will get an It’s On Us T-shirt.

Senate member William Outzen said his committee would be extending invitations for the city council to attend the student senate meeting on Wednesday, April 12 soon.

“My committee is also starting to look into ways to increase EIU’s presence at Lake Charleston,” Outzen said. “There was a request during a forum to look into that so we’re going to.”

Chrissy Miller can be reached at 581-2812 or clmiller9@eiu.edu.