Registration for candidates for this year's UPUA elections has been closed and those that have been selected to do battle have been named.
For the 2010 UPUA President/Vice President nomination, weighing in at I-don't-know-how-many pounds, it's Christian Ragland and Colleen Smith, who will be facing David Adewumi and Devin Weakland.
The two tickets will campaign and debate over the next two weeks until March 31, Election Day. Both tickets have already begun their campaigning. You can check out the Ragland-Smith literature on their website, Twitter, or Facebook and you can do the same for the Adewumi-Weakland ticket on their website, Twitter, or Facebook.
Registration opens for candidates hoping to run for President, Vice-President, and other representative seats for the University Park Undergraduate Association opens today.
Yes, the last two years have flown by--or not, depending on the type of meds you take-- and Gavin Keirans' two-term presidency is coming to a close. Candidates can pick up their necessary materials in the elections office, room 332 in the HUB starting at 10 am on Monday.
It's important to note that your registration must be completed by the end of spring break because campaigning begins that following Monday, March 15th.
And then the fun begins.
For those of you students looking to get your hands on some federal dollars (which should really be everyone), you have less than a week about a month and a half to get your FAFSA in!
And word is that some of the agony of filling out these forms will be removed by so-called "skip logic," which should keep you from writing the same old personal information in year after year. But, according to the average filler-out-er, it'll still have the potential to be a less than pleasant process.
"It's a little easier this year, but it's still daunting," says Fuentes-Michel, who recently helped her 17-year-old daughter fill out the form.
Ah, reform.
Regardless, money is money. And for your best shot at it, get your FAFSA in by March 2 April 15. And by that I mean hit up the 'rents by aforementioned date.
(Personal note: Thanks mommy!)
Our local Congressional representative, Scott Conklin, has begun circulating nomination petitions for a Lt. Governor run later this year.
Conklin, a Democrat, has been the representative of Pennsylvania's 77th district, which includes State College, since 2006. During his term, Conklin has been a strong supporter of PHEAA, a Pennsylvania organization that helps students with their pursuit of higher education. He has also helped Penn State secure grants and supported our basketball team when they were doing better than they are now.
With the primary election coming up May 18, he only has a few months to prepare. Even if he runs for Lt. Governor, he will still be allowed to run for re-election in his house seat, so he's not taking a big risk. Conklin's main motivation for running is to help reform PA's constitution. Considering how abysmal the state's budget process has been in the past few years, this might not be a bad idea.
Penn State graduate Michael Pipe will be officially announcing on Sunday his intent to run for Pennsylvania's 5th Congressional District, which is currently held by Rep. Glenn Thompson, a Republican.
Pipe has a steep hill ahead of him, however, as he is running as a Democrat in a district that has been notoriously known for its conservative tendencies. Thompson has yet to officially announce his run for re-election, but it is assumed that he will do so soon.
Read on to see his campaign video and to learn Pipe's story.
Rick Santorum, a former Pennsylvania senator and all-around pleasant man, announced that he is considering running on the Republican ballot in the 2012 presidential election.
So to reiterate, a man has publicly announced that he's thinking about doing something but isn't sure.
The speculation also came with a letter, which pretty much spells out his manifesto for his presidential campaign.
"I have no great burning desire to be president, but I have a burning desire to have a different president of the United States," Santorum said. And a different candidate he would make. He's been mentioned on several prestigious websites such as urbandictionary.com and even has his own "urban" defintion:
1. santorum: The sometimes frothy, usually slimy, amalgam of lubricant, stray fecal matter and ejaculate that leaks out of the receiving partner's anus after a session of anal intercourse.
It doesn't take a genius to realize that that definition probably had something to do with his hardliner conservative stance against homosexuality. But regardless of his views and last name definitions, he still boasts a significant amount of political experience, and as "frothy" as he may be, he may very well could be the best choice for our country's leader in the next election. Or he could be the bringer of the next apocalypse. In any case, invest in lots of canned foods.