Jeremiah Johnson, senior from Hopkinsville, Ky., is campaigning for a second year as SGA president.
There have been six repeat SGA presidents since SGA was formed in 1936. Frank Vittetow, David Curtis, J. Eddie Allen, Brian Van Horn, Todd Earwood and Kara Mantooth are the only students to serve more than one year as SGA president. Johnson hopes to be the seventh.
“If I am re-elected as SGA president, I have issues that I would like to carry over from this year to see completed next year,” Johnson said.
He said he hopes his past year of experience will get him re-elected since students can see the changes he has made and how he has helped lead SGA.
Mantooth, SGA president from 2008-10, said she chose to run for a second term as president because she felt as though there was still work to be accomplished with her leadership that had not been completed by the end of her first term.
“I was, and still am, so very passionate about Murray State and believe in the product that the University is selling,” Mantooth said. “I always viewed my time as SGA president as my service back to a school that gave me so much.”
Mantooth, who is a member of Alpha Omicron Pi, said her sorority and experience as SGA president during her first year helped her during the second term.
“My SGA experience isn’t all that helped me my second year,” Mantooth said. “Just having one more year under my belt at Murray State put me in a better position to serve the students of Murray State regardless of my past experience.”
Mantooth was a graduate student her second year as president. Johnson, too, will be a graduate student this fall.
Kirby O’Donoghue, 2010-2011 SGA president and graduate student, said she did not run for a second term because she was ready to start her career.
“I was ready to start into my career as a high school agriculture teacher and a position came open at a great school, so I took it,” O’Donoghue said. “I was career-ready and I love being a full-time teacher.”
She said there are pros and cons to having a second-year SGA president. She said she did not weigh these options after her term ended because she knew she was not going to run again.
“A pro is the experience as the actual SGA president and student regent,” O’Donoghue said. “They will also have experience at the Board of Regents meeting, which is beneficial.”
O’Donoghue said a disadvantage is students do not get to see a new face or a new perspective.