As president of the Student Association, Brent Keller, junior organizational management major, is at the helm of a multimillion-dollar entity.

For an inexperienced candidate, it would seem daunting to run an organization like the SA. Yet Keller believes he is up to the task.

“I felt that I had the most qualifications for [the presidency],” Keller said. Keller is the current director of mass transit.

Keller has outlined several goals for his presidency. One goal, Keller said, was to encourage more diversity on campus. He said the SA will feature more culturally diverse programming, and will better utilize the position of director of cultural affairs and vice president as such.

“We’re going to use the vice president to work with organizations to address whatever issues of diversity they may have,” Keller said.

Another issue Keller hopes to address is the lack of involvement of the general student body with the SA. Only 681 students voted in the SA/Campus Activities Board spring elections. Keller said he wants to re-work the curriculum of University 101 classes so the SA, along with other organizations, are mentioned more.

In addition, Keller hopes to hold a voter registration drive and debates between different political groups on campus. He would also like to have SA-sponsored debates between mayoral and aldermanic candidates, and possibly have a debate between Rep. Bill Foster and Republican nominee Jim Oberweis.

Keller also wants to find revenue alternatives for the SA. The SA is funded through student fees, which are then distributed to student organizations. This year, the organizations requested $2.3 million, while the SA had only $1.6 million to give out.

CAB

As CAB president, Marlon Haywood, junior biological sciences major, will be in charge of bringing entertainment to the NIU campus.

Haywood said he is committed to this. To find out what the students want, Haywood plans on asking them through surveys.

“I want to get the general consensus of what the students want,” Haywood said.

Running and planning events a majority of students agree on also played into why Haywood ran for the position.

“A lot of students are unhappy with things [events] that go on on campus,” Haywood said, adding that he wanted to do something about it. When he heard that student-at-large Lonnie Pollard was dismissed from the CAB presidency, Haywood attended the candidates’ meeting, and ran in the special presidential election. Haywood defeated current CAB president Colleen Murphy 219 to 106 votes.

One of Haywood’s ideas for programming is what he dubs as “organization week.” During this week, which would be in the beginning of the year, different student organizations would contend against each other in different competitions on campus.

“I think people will come out and represent their groups,” Haywood said.

For instance, Pi Kappa Alpha would play volleyball against the Asian Resource Center, while the forensics team would have a tug-of-war against the Black Student Union.

In addition to having competitions, Haywood would also like to see CAB have more co-sponsorships with student organizations. Haywood said that such partnerships would increase the turnout of events.

Haywood also wanted to see programming and events that would include the DeKalb community.