Hello everyone,

My name is Laura Murray, and I am the current SHO Membership Coordinator. I have read the election listserv messages recently with great interest, and I have a few general comments.

I would like to begin applauding the frequent references to the goals of the Student Honors Organization. I helped to write that goal statement, and I am always glad to see my own writing in print :-)

However I would like to say that I see an unnecessary amount of sarcasm in some of these listserv messages. One of the goals of SHO from the so often quoted SHO mission statement is "to promote community among all honors students." I assure you, many of the listserv messages I have read recently have not upheld that standard. Some messages have been downright petty and unkind. After all, this is not the race for the President of the USA or even President of the student body! Please do not be insulting to your fellow SHO members! I would like to encourage all the posters on the SHO discussion listserv to have a sense of humor and lightheartedness about the upcoming election. Try and have some fun with it and not turn it into something unpleasant.

On a personal note, I would also like to say that SHO will certainly be involved with many new and different activities in the future, but these activities will have to be done within our limited budget because we are ineligible for Student Government funds since we limit our membership to Honors Students (and trust me, budget was limited this year :-) I would encourage all the candidates for office to post their ideas in this forum, but also to remember that once people read those ideas they become "campaign promises" in the minds of many Honors students. Many exciting ideas that we had this year were simply not possible for our organization, and I do not want to see the Honors Community disappointed by good ideas that are impossible in a practical sense. All SHO activities must be within budget and approved by the Honors advisor in Tigert Hall.

In addition, I do not understand the frequent mention of "insider" status. This is silly in a race this of this size. We are all insiders of SHO. There are approximately 3000 "insiders" and they are called Honors Students. If you are not an Honors Student and by definition, an "insider," you can not run for any SHO office at all. Therefore, all the candidates and voters are "insiders." I encourage you to find a label that does not label everyone.

I am happy to answer any questions about SHO at [log in to unmask]">[log in to unmask]
Happy Campaigning and remember to SHO love!

Laura Murray
SHO Membership Coordinator :-)