The vice presidential candidates for the Student Government Association’s spring election, both those running for administrative vice president and executive vice president, are approaching their campaigns differently.

The first student to take the hot seat at last week’s election debate was junior Nicki Seay, the current Legislative Research chair of SGA. Seay is running unopposed for administrative vice president of SGA, and is concerned about reaching out to different groups of students.

She plans to make efforts in reaching out to WKU students by holding SGA meetings on South Campus occasionally and using Adobe Connect to bond more easily with regional campus students.

“Although they are not able to attend regular meetings here on main campus, they are WKU students nonetheless and I think we should be making efforts to reach out to them as well,” Seay said.

She said she is also working to reopen the South Campus food court.

Brad Cockrel and Mark Reeves are running for executive vice president.

Cockrel opened his speech at the debate with the goals he plans to attain if elected to executive vice president.

“My goals for my experience here with SGA are centered around three principles to ensure opportunity, to empower community and to extend sustainability,” Cockrel said. “I plan on using the experiences I had at community college in order to attain my goals of getting people more involved on campus, continuing to extend academic financial and social utilities on campus, and promoting a greener campus.”

When asked how he would improve communication between SGA and the student body, Cockrel responded that he would inform students early on, and try to get them involved from the beginning.

“It’s really about going out there and trying to get students to participate in the organization that we are all a part of,” Cockrel said.

Mark Reeves, a current participant in WKU’s Masters program, plans to improve how WKU brings achievement to all groups of students.

“To me, the EVP is a position that gives a student the opportunity to provide leadership in a variety of areas,” Reeves said. “For me, the way that I would like to do that is provide leadership in ways that aren’t being provided elsewhere.”

Reeves voiced his concerns about diversity in SGA by announcing that there is only one black senator this semester, which isn’t representative of the 10 percent of black students on WKU’s campus.

“We can make sure that SGA is representing all Hilltoppers,” Reeves said.

When asked about how he would go about encouraging students to apply for SGA, Reeves responded that SGA needs to reach students where they are and go to them.

“The best way to get people to come to an event is to invite them,” Reeves said.