Clabe Fjone

Caleb Fjone is the treasurer for the Model United Nations at Southeast Missouri State University and said that Student Government Association has an obligation to communicate with the student population.

"Student government has an obligation to be the voice of the students and that entails being connected, listening and providing feedback in making changes for all the students here at Southeast," Fjone said.

Fjone, who has not held a position in SGA before, explained that the role of the president is someone who is continuously engaged with events and organizations on campus.

"They have to be involved with committees like the ones that we have now, and they need to do social activities -- go to the sporting events, and they just need to connect to students here," Fjone said.

Fjone said that another key aspect of being SGA president is to be available to students.

"If elected, I would intend to set around one to two hours a week, just set them aside, for anyone who wants to talk and has any problems and just needs to be heard because that's what the president should do," Fjone said. "Listen to the people because they're the ones that elected him."

Fjone said that if there was a conflict between what students wanted and what he thought was the right decision, he would first hold open forums to inform the students what is truly going on.

"It is very important that the students know what we know," Fjone said. "We need to emphases government transparency. We can not just have students think that we know all these things and then we can't tell them what they need to know. They need to know everything. And then after all of the forums have been held, I would sit down with the students, work with them and try to find a solution that best fits the arisen scenarios."

Fjone would love to offer more activities on campus to get student to get involved and open up networking. He cited the Engage in 8 program, and said that it should be expanded for an entire semester.

"SEMO has a lot to offer, we just got to show students it's there," Fjone said.

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Peter Jacobson

Peter Jacobsen is a junior majoring in economics. He has been a senator in student government for the past two years. Through SGA, Jacobsen has been on the university affairs committee and the President's Task Force on Diversity Education. He is also on the executive board of Interfraternity Council and will be a resident assistant next year.

"When I came here at convocation, Benny Dorris, the current student government president, told us that one of us in this room will be student government president, and I didn't believe him because I didn't think that out of all the people I could achieve that," Jacobsen said. "But after my time at Southeast, I've realized that I can achieve anything I put my mind to because of the school that we have here, but not everybody feels that way about our school."

Jacobsen said that he wanted to run during his last year at Southeast to show that every student can accomplish whatever he or she wanted at Southeast.

"One of the major roles of student government is to make every student feel like they have the opportunity to achieve what they want to achieve," Jacobsen said.

Jacobsen said that his ticket, which includes Kelsey Orf as vice president and Clay Dawson as treasurer, have focused on finding tangible solutions to things like SGA having around $300,000 in their carry-forward budget. One of these solutions include creating an inventory of common event equipment.

"By buying things that students want to use for their events to have successful organizations, not only will that save for the future so that we can curb the amount of money that's being spent because we're almost running out if we continue to spend the money like we do, but it also allows us to tap into our savings a little bit so that way we can continue to improve for the future," Jacobsen said.

Jacobsen stressed that the role of SGA president should not be a dictator and is only one voice on campus.

"Our main role is to be someone who unites the different resources students have," Jacobsen said. "So that could be faculty, that could be the money pool we get from the budget that you guys take out of your tuition, that could be the different student leaders we have across campus."

Jacobsen said that the SGA president should be able to unite those different factors to find solutions for students.

"During my time on student government, I've served with faculty on faculty senate, I've served with leaders across campus," Jacobsen said. "I have worked with that pool on funding board. I have those resources and that experience behind me and I'm going to make sure to employ those the best way as possible for you."

Jacobsen mentioned that the executive board has been very "monogamous" in the past, and that that was something he wished to change.

"One thing that I want to do is I want a diverse exec board. At Southeast I've worked with traditional students, non-traditional students, international students, Greek students, non-Greek students. I've worked with so many types of students, there's no reason why we can't find the leaders and the student groups to be involved with student government executive board."

Jacobsen added that it is through a diverse executive board with various ideas and objections that you get the best results, not by just making the decision yourself.

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Aaron Clite

Aaron Clite is the current president of Sigma Phi Epsilon, where he has served on the executive board since he was a freshman. He also served as a student government senator last semester.

"I think that the most important role that student government has on this campus is creating value for its students," Clite said. "I honestly do believe that ever since I walked onto this campus, that student government has failed at that -- that there has been a true lack of leadership that has created value for students in order to really make them know what they're doing for this campus. I was reading a list of accomplishments that were put on the website, and quite frankly I was a little disappointed that a mural in the aquatic center was one of our biggest accomplishments.

"I think it needs to be things like brand new computers in Towers lab and in Dempster, and keeping the software completely up to date for students to use on campus. That's what our money should be going towards. So I hope by taking this position that I can do that and working with the administration and the new president of this university to try to create some value for the students here."

Clite said the SGA president should be someone who is committed and willing to getting something done and someone who is willing to meet with the administration and demand what students want.

"The hoops that we have to jump through to get something done, there are too many, and I really do hope to work with administration, I hope to work with Michele [Irby,] I hope to work with the university in trying to cut that to make student government more efficient," Clite said. "And I think that's what is most important for the students on this campus."

Clite said that his experience as the president of a fraternity has prepared him for the varying ideas and opinions that SGA will provide. He said that he has learned how to make important decisions quickly and that the executive board will need to move at a similar pace.

Clite shared that he chose to run because he felt like there should be more connection between SGA and the student population.

"I was sitting in class one day, and I had this small epiphany," Clite said. "It was that I had no idea who my student government senator was. I didn't know what student government did, and I had no idea what student government was doing for me. So at that time I had a few options. I could run for president, or I could sit back and do nothing. So at that time is when I made my decision."

Clite added that informing every student on who is representing them would be his greatest challenge if elected. He said that getting that information out is important so that when students have issues, they know who to talk to and how the system works.

"I think that the first step in hearing everybody is letting everyone know who they need to tell," Clite said.

He said that improved communication and technological improvements are high on his priority list.

"Real solutions are not easy to come by, but I can promise you that I'm going to work very hard and very diligently in order to solve problems that we may face here at Southeast," Clite said.