SGA Election Season Begins

Eight students will be vying for executive Student Government Association positions for the 2016-2017 school year.

The two candidate blocs were announced Friday afternoon. The first is OneTech 2016, which is the third campaign bloc in the last few years to run under the OneTech name. Its candidates are as follows:

President: John Michael Getz, junior accounting and finance dual major

External Vice President: Christopher Mitchell, junior chemical engineering major

Internal Vice President: Larken Lundgren, junior RHIM major

Graduate Vice President: Chelsea Clark, current senior biology major, future master’s of business graduate student

SGA has some substantial accomplishments in its past, such as getting turf fields installed near the women’s soccer field, Getz said, and he hopes to continue to better students’ experiences at Texas Tech.

“I’ve seen SGA and all it can do for people, and the positive impacts it can make in the lives of students who might not even know what student government is,” Getz said in a phone interview.

The second candidate bloc is Strive. Its candidates are as follows:

President: Benjamin Sharp, junior economics major

External Vice President: Alex DeRossi, junior energy commerce major

Internal Vice President: Witt Westbrook, junior energy commerce major

Graduate Vice President: Kevin Koestler, master’s of business graduate student

Helping students is one of the main reasons Sharp decided to run for SGA president. Having worked in the Texas Tech University President’s office, he feels he has a unique perspective on some of the challenges Tech students face.

Sharp ran for external vice president last year. He said in a phone interview that he hopes his previous campaigning experience will help during this election.

Both Getz and Sharp have been involved in SGA since being freshmen at Tech. Contact information for each candidate can be found on the SGA website.

The Hub@TTU and the Student Government Association will host the 2016 SGA Executive Candidate Forum on Feb. 23. The forum will be live-streamed on The Hub@TTU website. Election days will be March 8 and 9.

Although certain Hub staff members may or may not support various campaigns, their views or opinions do not reflect those of The Hub@TTU as a whole. In the interest of fairness, The Hub@TTU will not be endorsing a particular campaign.