With books for filing for Student Government positions now open, SG veterans have begun signing up for candidacy for the 2007-2008 school year.

The books will be open for the next two weeks, but several students have already made the announcement that they will run.

For the position of Student Senate president, James Hankins, a junior in political science and the Senate president’s pro-tempore, said he will run with the idea of getting the Senate involved in the campus community.

“I want to make sure [the senators are] attending campus events and that they’re out there with students, not sitting in holes,” Hankins said. “We need to make sure people know who they are, so when students have concerns they can come to those senators.”

Hankins lost last year’s senate president election to Zach Adams. Hankins said he learned things about himself as a result of the election loss.

“I learned how it feels to lose something you really care about,” he said. “People need to see more out of a candidate than just the ideas he or she has. People need to see a passion, not just a micro-manager.”

The main issue Hankins said he wants to tackle is making campus fun — whether that means reviving old traditions or creating new ones.

“The Senate needs to make sure this campus is fun again,” Hankins said. We’ll be finding out what students think is fun and the traditions and events they want to bring back that maybe have died off and starting new ones they want to see.”

For the position of student body treasurer, David Fox, a junior in political science and a member of the Senate, is the only student to announce candidacy so far.

He said he wants to build on the successes of current treasurer Adam Compton on handling appropriations for student groups.

“Adam has done a good job with appropriations and advocating for what students need,” Fox said.

One of the programs Fox said he wants to start is for student organizations to be able to apply for Web sites through Student Government.

“It’s another way SG can give to the groups,” Fox said. “Student body treasurer should be the first resource for student groups.”

Fox said he wants to reach out to student groups allowing them to come to him with any budget problems they may have.

“You can’t do this thing just for the title, or else the time and effort aren’t worth it,” he said.

Two candidates have announced they are running for student chief justice, including the current Chief Justice Lock Whiteside.

Whiteside said his main issues will be to continue working on raising the burden of proof to find a student guilty of offense, as well as tweaking the relationship between the Judicial Board and the director of the office of student conduct.

“Running as an incumbent is much different because you’re running on your record,” Whiteside said. “But being active with the Senate and as chief justice, I’ve learned a lot and there’s a big learning curve with this job.”

The other candidate is Judicial Board member Chris Gilmore, a junior in political science.

Gilmore has served on the Board for the past three years and said he will focus on three main issues: unifying the student body, the Judicial board and the administration; creating alcohol awareness programs and creating academic integrity programs to make students more knowledgeable of the rules.

“I’m hoping to get the right message across,” Gilmore said of his candidacy. “[Student chief justice] is something I really want to do and I think I would be good at it.”