IRHA positions up for grabs in annual election

Arlene Birt and Hannah Zahs

Students who want to get involved with their residence halls have the opportunity to voice their opinions about student government this week.

Inter-Residence Hall Association and individual residence hall associations will be holding elections on Tuesday.

The IRHA election is from 1 to 7 p.m. However, some of the residence hall associations have extended their voting time slots.

David Sims, junior in mechanical engineering, and Brant Ausenhus, freshman in architecture, are the only students running for the IRHA president and vice president positions, respectively.

However, write-ins for the IRHA president and vice president positions are being accepted until today at noon. One-hundred signatures are required.

President and vice president are the only elected positions in IRHA.

“The executive positions are chosen by the new president and vice president by application around dead week,” said current IRHA President Ben Chamberlain.

Qualifications for the IRHA Executive Board include having at least a 2.0 GPA and one semester of residency in the residence halls.

Chamberlain said a highlight of this year’s elections is the creation of a sixth executive position — director of information technology.

“This person will work with an e-mail list, the Web page and KURE,” said Chamberlain, senior in agricultural studies.

All positions in the individual residence hall associations are elected.

However, Chamberlain said there probably will be a low voter turnout because there is little competition for the positions, both in the IRHA and in the individual associations.

“I bet it will be a real low turnout, [but] hopefully I will be proven wrong,” he said. “The people running don’t do much campaigning.”

Residents must show their fee cards and ISUCards to vote at their area polling places, which may be located in the halls’ commons or at the Hall Desks.

All residence hall residents are eligible to vote in the election and to run for elected positions.

“Almost any resident of the residence halls can apply for the positions,” Chamberlain said. “IRHA is a good opportunity to meet many different people and interact with the university.”