By Erin Peters

On the ballot for freshman representative are Amy Petelin of La Salle and Lisa Twardowski of Peru. Eric Mathieu of La Salle is also on the ticket for one of two places on the programming board. No candidates were available for comment at press time.

SGA did not make any formal announcements as to when election petitions were available to aspiring candidates. Students who turned in completed petitions learned of them either by word of mouth or from the Student Handbook.

Sandy Beard in the Student Services office said that the number of students who run varies from year to year, but that they are in her words, "usually happy to have a full ballot." SGA President Angela Brown said that any student may still run as a write in candidate. Write in candidates and formal candidates may advertise on campus after having their materials approved by the Student Services Office located in C-218.

Campaigning for student offices is encouraged, Beard said. The increase of student participation in elections over the past several years is attributed to student emphasis on awareness of them, she said.

Brown said that she would like evening voting hours this year in hopes that students in night classes will place their votes.

"I would be utterly ecstatic if the entire student body would show interest," Brown said.

SGA advisor Cory Tomasson estimated that there will be somewhere between 200 and 300 voters. Any student with one credit hour is eligible to vote.

Aside from the freshman elections, the main focus of the SGA in recent meetings has been on budget allocations.

"All of our activities have been postponed for a short time for a transition to the computer software," Tomasson said.

Accounts and information in offices throughout the school need to be transferred to the new computer software system and delays are necessary to compensate for it. After the budget has been finalized, the SGA will begin to focus more on programming for the upcoming school year, the advisor said.

The next scheduled SGA meeting is Sept. 18 at 7:15 a.m. in C-103, the SGA office. Meetings are usually held every other Monday at that time.

Every officer of the SGA is required by the Constitution of the Student Government Association of Illinois Valley Community College to maintain at least one scheduled office hour each week. Tomasson said that SGA officers will establish their office hours at the next meeting.