Union Board elections begin

Voting begins today for the 105th Union Board elections.

Students can choose from 30 candidates. Polling begins at 8 p.m. and will close 8 p.m. Wednesday.

Eight students will be chosen for director positions by the student body through popular vote.

Candidates are not running to be a specific committee director, but to serve on the board in general.

The 2014 Union Board directors will fill individual director positions and executive positions internally after the official members have all been chosen.

Students may vote online through the Union Board website, ub.indiana.edu, or at a polling booth located in the Indiana Memorial Union East Lounge.

Union Board directors organize a range of social and academic events for students.

They plan concerts, lectures and other events paid for by student fee money.

Each candidate’s name is listed on the ballot along with his or her platform, current Union Board Election Commissioner and former IDS reporter Anu Kumar said.

Students will also be able to vote on a new constitution passed by the current Union Board.

Election commissioners Kumar and Asher Wittenberg will oversee the election process and make voting available to students.

“I think we have a great variety consisting of both people with past experience as well as students who don’t have prior experience and just want to be involved,” Wittenberg, the Union Board concerts director and an IU senior, said.

In addition to the eight positions voted on by students, eight candidates will be selected through an interview process by a panel of non-returning Union Board members and executives. 

“We have people who have never really been a part of Union Board but want to program for students and get involved in this organization, which is great,” Kumar said. 

By Dec. 6, the entire board will be finalized.

“The people that they are voting for are going to be spending their money,” Kumar said. “It’s in your best interest to vote for who you want to be on that board.”

Follow reporter Torie Schumacher on Twitter @shoe_torie.