Members of the Residence Hall Association took nominations for their vice presidential election Thursday.

Nominees for vice president are Mackenzie Freund, a sophomore journalism major, and Christopher Pickard, a sophomore political science major. They were both nominated by another member of RHA and accepted their nominations.

Mallory Winkeler, the national communications coordinator, said elections are typically held at the end of the semester, and having them in the middle of the semester usually is not done.

The abrupt elections this year occurred because the last RHA vice president left for personal reasons.

The new vice president, as well as the other members of the RHA executive board, will keep their positions for the rest of the semester.

The responsibilities of the new vice president will be to oversee various committees and head the Social Justice and Diversity Week and other events.

The vice president will also take over in the event that the president is not able to fulfill their duties.

The new vice president will not be responsible for ROC fest as last semester’s was.

President Christina Lauff said RHA is looking for members who are well organized, and secretary Jack Cruikshank said they wanted people who are also good communicators.

The elections will involve each candidate giving a three-minute speech and a five-minute question and answer session.

The rest of the RHA members will then discuss each candidate in a private session and vote.

Many of the halls are also holding elections next week on different days.

Andrews and Pemberton are both looking for a new academic initiative chair, and Douglas, McKinney, Weller, and Lawson is electing new executive board members.

Taylor’s Hall Council recently gained new members as well as Lincoln, which gained a new secretary. Andrews Hall is also discussing changing to 24-hour visitation for all floors.

Lauff encouraged RHA members and their respective hall councils encouraged to go to the open interview sessions for Eastern’s presidential search

“(The interviews) are pretty important, (and) a major part of the university,” she said. “It doesn’t happen very often, so get involved with that; it’s super cool.”

Mark Hudson, director of Housing and Dining, encouraged attendance as well.

“They are here interviewing us as much as we’re interviewing them,” Hudson said. “Being there also helps us sell the university to them.”

Brought up from last meeting were the jars of coins used to raise money for Relay-for-Life. Lauff said they would have the tallies of how much money each hall raised next week.

Lauff said that it was extremely important for all RHA members to bring themselves and their RHA representatives to the meeting in order to have enough people for a vote.

Cassie Buchman can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].