Ann Kopecky

Clint Powell and Dave Hove want to represent the students of South Dakota State University.

“I just think it’s important to work on things that are important to the student body as a whole,” Powell said. “We want to make sure the students’ voice is heard.”

Powell and Hove are just two of the four candidates running for Student Association President and Vice President at SDSU. The other candidates are Amanda Mattingly from the College of Arts and Science and Doug Timm from the College of Nursing. Powell and Hove, both agricultural engineering majors, will represent the Colleges of Engineering and Agriculture.

The election will be held March 3 and 4.

Powell, a sophomore from Chamberlain, has been involved with student government since high school. He served as student body president, was involved with Future Farmers of America and ran for a state FFA office. At SDSU, he has been involved with student association since last year. He is currently the senate liason from Greek council and sits on the student union and activities committee and the Media Council committee.

Besides his involvement with student association, Powell is involved with Greek Council, Alpha Gamma Rho fraternity and American Society of Agricultural Engineering. He is also vice president of the Joint Engineering Council and an ambassador for the Admissions office.

“I’m not really a guy that is content with letting other people doing things and then criticizing from the sidelines,” Powell said.

Hove agrees. A sophomore from Bricelyn, Minn., Hove serves as a senator from the College of Agriculture and Biology. He is currently on the finance committee and serves as a student association representative to the Residential Life Committee. Hove is also treasurer for the Joint Council of Engineering.

Powell and Hove’s motto is “Small in Stature, Tall in Leadership.”

“The big thing is we want issues that universal, things that will affect all students,” Hove said.

Powell and Hove have four proposals that they plan to work on if they are elected president and vice president.

The first program they want to implement is advisor training. This would involved training faculty members to be more efficient advisiors for students. Faculty would learn what requirements are needed for each major and how to interact with students on a one-to-one basis.

“I reallly think an advisor should be there to discuss things,” Powell said.

Powell and Hove’s second item on their agenda is to help make the transition from the union go smoothly. With the new union expansion, offices, eating places and student gathering spots will be moved to other places across campus.

Their third proposal is to gain better rates for cable, telephone and internet access for students living on campus.

Powell said that rates, especially telephone, are too high for students and many are resorting to the use of cell phones. He said if the rates were lower, more people would use it.

Their last issue is the sophomore proficiency exam. Powell and Hove would like to see students exempted from taking the test based on the score of their ACT and high academic records.

Powell said that it would not only save students’ time but would also save SDSU and the Board of Regents money.

Powell and Hove said they also plan to continue some of the same programs that current President Eric Erickson and Vice President Justin Larson have set in place.

“We want to continue a fine leadership and voice,” Hove said.