Both current Vice President of External Affairs Grant Cochran and Senior Adviser to the SGA President Coresa Nancy Hogan have declared their intention to run for SGA president, according to vote.ua.edu.

“To have an active voice in the progressive movement that campus is taking a part of is what has driven me to run for this position,” Hogan said in her letter of intent.

“Since I’ve stepped foot on this campus, my sole purpose has been to serve the student body by actively listening and pursuing issues that concern them,” she said.

“I have worked for UA students every day of my term,” Cochran said in his own letter of intent. “Throughout the last year, our campus has seen great improvements to unify the student body and to crumble walls that have long divided our University. Unification is our goal, and unyielding progress is our method.”

As the SGA elections near, the new candidates must adapt to changes made this year by the elections board to prohibit using chalking and stickers to gain votes.

“We chose to eliminate chalking to encourage students to select more substantive campaign methods,” said Amelia Haas, president of the Academic Honor Council and member of the elections board. “Chalking works only for name recognition because no one attempts to communicate a platform via chalk. We felt that by eliminating chalking, students would spend their time speaking to student groups, building websites and social media campaigns.”

The elections board is comprised of five students, one voting faculty member and three supporting staff members. Four of these students are appointed by the vice provost, one is selected by the SGA president and one is the current president of the Academic Honor Council.

Haas said the board voted to eliminate stickers because of the damage they cause to campus grounds.

“Every year, thousands of dollars are spent to remove campaign stickers from sidewalks, handrails, floors, bathroom stalls and doors,” she said. “This is a waste of everyone’s tuition dollars.”

The elections board voted to make these changes in January.

While those SGA candidates seeking office are now only to speak with student groups to get their name out there, they will be able to distribute campaign materials starting this Sunday, Feb. 27, at 5 p.m.

Haas said the changes to chalking also came from people violating chalking rules over the past years by writing petty messages over others’ names.

“Not only is chalking, at best, a moderately effective campaign tool, but every year chalking violations slow down the elections board hearing process,” she said. “For the past two or three years, petty chalking violations have distracted candidates from their campaigns. This is a rule put into place to raise the bar on our SGA elections.”

Hogan said with the recent changes to elections guidelines, campaigning is going to take on a new look.

“We have to find new, innovative ways to draw attention to our candidacy and our platform,” she said. “My top goal is to find new merchandise that can spread our message to students within every corner of campus. Social media is also going to play an incredibly important role, especially through Facebook, Twitter and our blog.”

The spending budget for candidates will have to be turned in every Monday so that what each candidate is spending can be monitored in order to keep the playing field level for all candidates. The budget for students running for senate positions is $200 and for the executive board positions it is $800.

“Campaign restrictions help ensure open, honest government, which is a major commitment of my campaign,” said Will Pylant, a freshman running for SGA senate. “Our new SGA constitution includes provisions that require clear financial disclosure statements to be submitted every Monday. This is definitely a step in the right direction.”

He said UA students deserve the very best from their student government and this means transparency and honesty.

“At the end of the day, students do not vote for a candidate because of stickers or chalking,” Hogan said. “Students vote for the candidate that presents a clear message that students identify with. I think the new regulations will really encourage candidates to talk personally with the student body, and that is a change that I am really excited about.”