The Undergraduate Student Government presidential election takes place April 9 and 10 on D2L. The presidential campaign pits familiar USG faces Senator Chris Wheetley against Treasurer Cameron Shulak. The president’s term begins in June when current President Adrian Miller’s term expires.

Candidate: Christopher Wheetley

USG senator Christopher Wheetley, a junior from Murphysboro studying political science and paralegal studies, will seek the presidency after his first term in office.

Advertisement

Wheetley attended Agape Christian High School in Marion. After becoming a USG senator his freshman year, Wheetley was nominated as chair of Internal Affairs Committee last spring.

Wheetley is a Saluki Ambassador and served as assistant director for the Southern Illinois Leader Conference in early fall. Wheetley is set to be director for next year’s conference, but if elected USG president, he said he will not be involved in any other leadership councils.

“I will make this my one extracurricular activity,” he said.

Wheetley also serves as the president of the West Campus Area Council. He said he is qualified for the position because he is professional and well-organized, two of the most important characteristics for a president.

“I also pride myself on being a listener and helping facilitate communication,” he said. “You have to listen to the students but also effectively communicate that to the administration.”

His campaign will consist of three main points, which are communication, cooperation and commitment, he said. He said he hopes to evoke conversation between senators and their respected districts.

“Also we will work to improve communication between the executive branch of USG and the legislative branch of USG,” he said.

Advertisement*

Wheetley said as president he wants to develop stronger communication between USG and Graduate Professional Student Council.

“As a senator, personally, the only contact that I’ve seen — is us and GPSC had a joint meeting to discuss student fees but the reason that happened was pretty much so the people presenting didn’t have to present twice,” he said.

One of the most important things facing the student body is the fee awareness campaign, which has been brought to USG attention by President Adrian Miller’s campaign, he said.

“The (SIU Board of Trustees) may not even vote on the fees for next year until — I’ve heard as late as May,” he said. “So we might not see it this year, and if not that’s something that I would definitely want to have in the future.”

Wheetley said Miller has done well filling the student advisory boards, but there is room for improvement. He said all seats must be filled.

He said one of his biggest accomplishments is the addition of the student media fee.

Wheetley said he is taking his Law School Administration Test course so he can take the exam this summer and begin applying for law schools. He said his graduation date is flexible because he is a sophomore with as many credits as a junior.

“I could feasibly graduate in May 2015, which would be next year, which would make next year my last year,” he said. “That’s a decision I will have to make at the end of this year.”

His ticket will consist of USG senator Matt Schmidlin as vice president, who represents west campus.

Wheetley chose USG senator Steven Smith, who represents the college of engineering as chief of staff, and Allison Campbell, vice president of Saluki Ambassadors, as executive assistant. Campbell is not a member of USG. He chose USG Sen. Mershon Caissie, who represents the college of agriculture, as treasurer.

Candidate: Cameron Shulak

Cameron Shulak, a junior from Louisville, Ky. studying aviation flight and aviation management, announced his candidacy for USG president Tuesday.

Shulak is USG treasurer and chairman of the Funding Board. He is also president of the Theta Zeta Chapter of the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity as well as the vice president of the Inter-Greek Council.

Shulak said he decided to run for USG president because he wants to increase the voice of the student population.

“Over the past year while serving as treasurer of USG I’ve become more and more involved in the organization and I’ve had the chance to connect with a lot of students,” he said. “I eventually made the decision that I want to step up that involvement and represent the students as their USG president.”

Because of his history with USG and the Inter-Greek Council, Shulak said he feels he is well prepared to take on the role.

“I like to make a difference in everything I do, whether it be something very simple or something more involved like undergraduate student government,” he said.

As a USG senator, Shulak composed and presented the new student funding guidelines, which were passed in his first semester as treasurer. He said this helped USG maintain better financial stability as well as provide funding for more groups on campus than in recent history.

“It’s increased the fairness and efficiency of the process and really sets out a framework for the next USG executives to come,” he said. “There will always be that stability there set forth by that document that there hasn’t been in the past.”

Shulak said he saw a need for a change and made that change happen and received many positive comments from several RSO’s.

“Within those student-funding guidelines we’ve overhauled the process for allocating funds and how that process occurs,” he said.

Shulak said he wanted to overhaul the current USG system to make student government a more open process.

“One of the biggest matters of importance that I see right now is just to increase the voice of the students of SIU,” he said. “I’d like to do that by creating more representation for the average student within USG.”

Shulak said he would like to overcome the disconnect he sees within the university and hear the voices of those outside of USG.

He wants to incorporate more RSO’s and their leaders within USG and have town hall style meetings outside of the USG senate setting with students to give them a chance to express themselves as easily as possible to the executive members, he said.

“If a student has something that they want changed, feels the need for a change or just something that they’re not happy with, I want there to be a very easy avenue for them to express that concern to us,” he said. “Or… what the school administration and USG administration is doing right and what they want to see more of.”

Shulak said he would like students to express their opinions fearlessly and feel like a participating member of the Carbondale community and know how to do so.

Both Luke Nozicka and Sarah Niebrugge contributed to this story.

Luke Nozicka can be reached at [email protected], @lukenozicka, or 536-3311 ext. 283.

Sarah Niebrugge can be reached at [email protected], on Twitter at @SNiebrugge_DE or at 536-3311 ext. 268.