28 vie for 8 Rackham seats

By Johanna Wetmore

Daily Staff Reporter

As Michigan Student Assembly candidates rev up their campaigns for next week's elections, the Rackham Student Government enters the third day in its week-long online voting effort to fill the Fall 2000 representative seats.

RSG president Damon Fairfield said he expects a voter high turnout, although a minority of the total Rackham student population will actually vote. "A 10-12 percent voter turn out is good," he said.

"The grad school is thrilled, ecstatic with that high amount of participation." Fairfield hasn't seen the numbers for the first day, but he anticipates turnout similar to last year's participation of roughly 700 out of 7,000 students.

Kam Siu, one of three candidates for the only open education division seat, said he would like to work on the lack of involvement of graduate students at the University.

"Ten percent turnout isn't a lot," Siu said.

Marissa Ebersole, one of nine candidates up for two spots in the engineering and physical sciences division, stressed the importance of voting this week. "They're your voice in Rackham," she said.

Fairfield said he is thrilled to have a high candidate participation as well with 28 candidates running for eight seats in Rackham's five divisions - health and biological sciences, engineering and physical sciences, social sciences, arts and humanities and education.

"Last year we had something like 17 candidates for 8 spots," said health and biological sciences incumbent Clarise Rivera.

Rivera said she wants to continue "attacking a lot of the issues we brought up last year."

Fairfield said those major issues include child care concerns for graduate students, University busing and transit improvements, a collaborative project with the Michigan Student Assembly, graduate student athletic ticket distribution, as well as increased interdisciplinary social interaction for Rackham students.

Siu would like to secure more funding for these issues. "We need funding before any of the major issues can be implemented. It's not a one-step process," Siu said.

Potential candidates had until Nov. 3 to submit statements at the Rackham Student Government Website for candidacy. "If you submitted a statement, you're a candidate," Fairfield said.

Candidate statements can be found online at www.umich.edu/~rstugov/elections. Online voting will close at midnight Sunday.