Earlier in Spring Semester, Ben Tietz said he would not run on a Student Government Association slate for re-election because he wanted to give someone else a chance. However, Tietz said his decision is not so clear-cut now and does not know if he will run.
"It could mean yes; it could mean no," he said. "We'll just have to wait and see."
The spring nomination convention for SGA is at 6 p.m. Monday in the L.A. Pittinger Student Center Forum room. Would-be senators, justices and presidential slates are filing applications and preparing to campaign.
But presidential slate members have been putting platforms together and recruiting people for months, Mike Piercefield, vice president of SGA, said. If students have waited until now to form a slate, they're cutting it pretty close, he said.
Ben Tietz, president of SGA, started scoping people out for his slate in October 2003 for the Spring 2004 elections, he said. He chose his vice president, secretary and treasurer by the middle of December, and they were already putting a platform together.
"Ben is a huge overachiever and a huge kind of planner guy," Piercefield said. Typically, a student who wants to be president forms the slate and starts forming the platform at the end of the fall semester or by the beginning of the spring semester, he said.
Creating a successful slate takes planning and preparation, Tietz said. He knew what he felt each position -- president, vice president, secretary and treasurer -- should be responsible for and what criteria he wanted his fellow candidates to meet, aside from the minimum requirements set forth by the Elections Code.
Students who run for any position on SGA cannot be on academic probation. Justices and members of the presidential slate must have a minimum 2.7 GPA, according to the eligibility requirements. Students do not have to have any prior experience to run for a position.
"When the [Jayson] Manship slate ran in 2003, their administration had no prior SGA experience before they came into office," Tietz said. Team Tietz had five years of combined experience, split between Tietz and Olufunmbi Elemo, when they ran in 2004.
Piercefield said slates need three qualities to be successful.
"A lot of leadership is very important," Piercefield said. "They need to be very very organized, self-motivated."
Once the slate is together and the platform decided, the slate must complete the election forms available from the SGA office in the Student Center, Tietz said.
Three slates applied for the Spring 2004 elections: Manship's, Matt Parker's and Tietz's.
"Upon looking at the elections packet, the elections packet wasn't complete so [the Elections Board] ruled the Parker slate was not eligible," Tietz said. The elections packets are due at the nomination convention, which includes a petition with 400 signatures. The Parker slate turned in half of the required signatures at the convention with the expectation to have the rest later.
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