The Legion of Black Collegians will elect three new executive board members for the 2011-2012 academic year Saturday.
Current Political Chairwoman Whitney Williams, Activities Chairwoman Kristen Andrews and sophomore Cameron Grant are running unopposed for president, vice president and parliamentarian, respectively.
The Activities chairperson position will not be voted on but had already been confirmed and filled by sophomore Jake Mitchell, LBC President Lisa White said.
Williams and Andrews plan to use their term to execute ideas they have come up with during their time on executive board. Williams said she plans to focus on retention and visibility of LBC in the 2011-2012 academic year.
“We plan to get back to (the) retention we use to have,” Williams said. “The numbers in Senate seemed to have slipped.”
Increasing visibility by making LBC known to African-American and other minority students is also a goal of William’s.
“We have been doing a lot of events with other organizations,” Williams said. “Everyone else seems to know who we are except for the minority students.”
Williams also plans on reaching out to not only minority students, but minority faculty as well, to extend LBC’s appreciation of the MU staff.
“I have been involved with LBC for three years and have really seen it grow,” Williams said. “(Presidency) seemed like a viable step from here.”
Usually each candidate would participate in a debate with the competition for their position, but since each candidate was running unopposed, they were to present their ideas during a debate on Tuesday, LBC Communication Chairwoman Ashley Edwards said.
Although the debate is a formality in the election process, it was cancelled due to the low turnout of applicants, White said.
“They were unopposed so it wouldn’t have been much of a debate,” White said. “It would have been them simply stating why they wanted to (run). We like to give them formality, but the timing wasn’t right and a lot of favors didn’t play in the part for the debate.”
All executive board position will not be filled during the election process. Almost all chair positions are open, White said during LBC Senate on Wednesday.
“The positions that are open will be taken care of by the president and vice president,” White said. “They will decide to host interviews and an application process to fill those positions once they get into their term during the summer semester or at the beginning of the next school year.”
The remaining positions include the communications chair, finance chair, secretary, political chair and freshman action chair, White said.
“(The president and vice president) along with advisers and ex-officio members of the cabinet will decide on which candidate will be the best fit for the position during the 2011-2012 school year,” White said.