The Northern Iowan Student Government campaign for President and Vice President has begun. Monday, Feb. 9 marked the first week of campaigning for the only two tickets running for office, Katie Evans/Renae Beard and Jared Heitz/Tanner Barnhard.

Next in line is the debate, which is Tuesday, Feb. 17 from 6-8 p.m. in the main area of Maucker Union. The debate is not only for the President and VP candidates, but also for students running for Senate seats of their respective colleges. 

Nathan Davis, junior psychology major, Chief Justice of NISG and Election Commissioner for the upcoming elections, said that for the Presidential and Vice Presidential bids it’s quite easy to find information about the candidates and their platforms. They both have their own websites, which are “extremely informative.” They also use social media, such as Facebook and Twitter.

“It’s very easy to find them just by looking up their names or jumping on the NISG website, so I would say go up to the websites that they’ve made,” said Davis. “For the senators it’s a little trickier. Once the names get up there, I say do your own investigating and try to reach out to the senators within your college.”

Davis suggests students attend Tuesday’s debate, which will feature senators from each college, to learn more information about the candidates. After the segment on senators, the two platforms for president and vice president will debate. Davis also honed in on why students should vote to begin with.

“The student leadership in NISG is one of the strongest student leader organizations. That’s something where the leadership really makes an impact on our campus so voting decides who is making some of the largest student contributions on our campus,” Davis said.

For those who wish to run in the election, but have missed the deadline for turning in applications, it’s still possible to run. According to the NISG page on the UNI website, students may run a write-in campaign. However, all write-in candidates need their name to appear on at least 5 ballots to be eligible for a senate seat.

Voting for NISG President and VP and Senate will begin Tuesday, Feb. 24 at 7 a.m. on MyUNIverse and polls close Wednesday, Feb. 25 at 7 p.m.

“NISG is a great organization. It has a strong precedent of doing lots of great things for this campus. The organization is excellent. I think students really learn a lot by being involved with it.”