All candidates in the upcoming Campus Activities Board and Student Association executive elections attended an open forum held by the Northern Star on Monday.

More than 30 people, including members of CAB, the SA and students-at-large, attended the forum. Candidates were given the opportunity to respond to questions posed by the Star editorial board and others in attendance.

Students on three tickets are running for the president, vice president, treasurer and student trustee positions for the SA elections.

Doug Reisinger, a current SA senator, is running as the presidential candidate on the “Integrity” ticket along with Donna Dalton, his vice-presidential running mate and a current SA senator. On the same ticket is Steve Illingworth, who is running for the treasurer position. He also is an SA senator.

Their ticket favored change to existing polices and programs with the SA. Reisinger said they do not like the way Huskie Highlights has been run this year.

“The SA is getting away from its mission of funding student organizations … to funding itself,” Reisinger said. “It’s an unfinished work that was approved by the senate.” All three on the ticket voted against the creation of the magazine when it first was approved.

A second ticket is headed by presidential candidate Craig Marcus, the current SA director of Athletics and Recreation. His running mates include Janet Rodriguez, the vice-presidential candidate and SA senator, and treasurer candidate DuJuan Smith, the SA director of Organizational Development. Eric Johnson, SA Supreme Court chief justice and DeKalb County Board member, is running for the position of student trustee.

Marcus said candidates on the ticket want to improve what already is in place in the SA and work from there to create new policies.

Johnson said he wants to create a graduated system for parking ticket fines and put the appeals process for tickets online.

A third ticket, composed of two write-in candidates, includes Erik Benbennick, a former SA senator who is running for SA president, and Phil Stroud, a current SA senator who is running for student trustee.

One of Benbennick’s main goals as president would be to overturn the SA Senate bill that called for any student organization that collects 10 percent of student fees to hold campus-wide elections. This is the same bill that opened CAB elections to the student body.

Two tickets exist for the CAB elections. This year marks the first year CAB elections have been open to the campus.

Jenny Mendez, an SA senator; Matthew Holder, a junior political science major; and William Leahy, an SA senator; are running for president, vice president and treasurer, respectively, on the same ticket.

Mendez said she feels CAB’s programming is not diverse enough. Her vice president, Holder, said he wants to promote CAB better to get more students to come to its events.

“I think to increase involvement, we should sell CAB,” Holder said.

On the other ticket is John Benson, current CAB concerts coordinator who running for president. He is partnered with Jen Suerth, the current CAB president who is running for vice president.

Both Benson and Suerth are the only CAB executive candidates with experience working in the organization. Benson said he wants to implement a system of feedback, where those in attendance can comment on CAB activities.