It's election time once again at The University of Memphis.
Two parties, SGAgency and M.A.D. (Making A Difference), will confront each other over the next three days and try to convince students that they should control the organization viewed by administrators as "the voice of the students."
When the polls opened today at 5 a.m., the fight began for the 2007 Student Government Association.
"We don't want to be cocky and say we're going to win this or we're going to win that," said Gionni Carr, president-elect from the SGAgency party. "But we do have positive feelings about the campaign."
There are only two categories in which the parties will actually go head-to-head: vice-president and senator-at-large.
Monday, the two parties were supposed to begin campaigning outside the Tiger Den, but Carr said his party missed out on the opportunity because of a lack of communication.
"I'm just a little perturbed because I've been checking my e-mail, and I didn't get this e-mail," he said. "My advertisements are coming (today)."
Carr has already won the one-man presidential race, which originally contained M.A.D. party leader Kenneth Taylor.
With experience in SGAs at The University of Memphis and University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Taylor said his experience would better suit him in the legislative body.
"All the general work that I've done has been in the senate," he said. "Currently, according to the constitution, the president has no power to even speak in the senate."
Though he is no longer running for president, Taylor and his M.A.D. party have stuck with the original platform on which he campaigned for president.
M.A.D. candidates handed out pamphlets Monday with ideas about lowering textbook prices and creating block parties and a Saving Our Students (S.O.S.) program that would directly connect students with senators.
"We are the party that's making a difference in SGA," Taylor said. "We're the ones getting ignored by Barnes and Noble trying to get a book rental program on this campus."
Carr and his SGAgency party's ideas aren't as spelled out as the M.A.D. party, but he said they operate on an ideal of three I's - investigating, interacting and improving.
The only way to find out what students want is to investigate their concerns through interaction and later act on what they want, Carr said.
Promises are one thing, but coming through with those promises is an entirely different matter.
Last year the Claws and Stripes Party, headed by current SGA president Maegan Ratliff, promised a 24-hour library, a campus-wide grading system and a tiger statue, none of which ever came to fruition.
Meanwhile, the Progress party, which supported current vice-president Kim Jones, promised to update the student body with regular press releases and make a 24-hour Tigerweb.
Fall semester will see the beginning of a 24-hour Tigerweb, but it had more to do with the Tennessee Board of Regent's mandatory switch to the Spectrum operating program than with actions from SGA.
Most of the students on the SGAgency ticket have little or no experience in student government, but Carr said he sees that as an X-factor that will help them stand out in the campaign.
Carr added that many of the students in his campaign are heavily involved in various organizations on campus.
"SGA has been under strong scrutiny this year and there's kind of been a lot of negative publicity this year," he said. "We're going to have to get some new blood in SGA."
On the opposite end, the M.A.D. party is far more experienced, with some of their members already holding leadership positions in the current SGA.
Some students have pointed to SGA as a "do-nothing organization," but Taylor said the people on the M.A.D. ticket are different.
Students with the M.A.D. campaign have supported or presented bills that created a student appreciation day, expulsion of senators after three absences and set up a committee to explore the visitation policy at The U of M.
"We're a new party, and we're a party that's already proven that we can and will make a difference," Taylor said. "I don't think it's a matter of which one's better. I think it's a matter of which one has the most experience, which one's done more and which one is the best."
Aside from the two parties, students will also vote on whether to add an environmental fee that will be used towards the green power switch program through the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) and create energy efficient programs on campus.
Contrary to popular belief, enrolling in the TVA's Green Power Switch program will not guarantee the energy used on The University of Memphis campus will come from a renewable energy source, according to Jolyn Newton, product manager of the Green Power Switch program.
Currently, The U of M receives its power from a grid of various sources under the TVA, some of which are already renewable energy sources.
"We can't control the flow of electrons," Newton said.
However, the program does guarantee the amount of energy bought by The U of M will be produced from their green power sites, which will make the entire state less dependant on non-renewable sources, Newton said.
TVA currently has no plans to expand their renewable energy source program, but if The U of M were to enroll in the green power program, the TVA would have to expand their program to keep their certification as a green power generator, according to Newton.
"Without people signing up for it, the renewable energy won't be generated," she said. "If you don't use renewables then you're relying on non-renewables and by definition, non-renewables will run out."
