While Barack Obama and Mitt Romney prepare to do battle on the national political front, students at Missouri Southern were charged with selecting their own government officials this week.

Voting started on Tuesday and continued into Wednesday afternoon for student senate officer positions and results were announced Wednesday night.

McKenzie Warren, junior English major, was elected student senate secretary. Cody Martin, freshman political science major, was named treasurer. Taylor Haas, sophomore political science major, will be the 2013 student senate vice president.

In the race for president, current president Johnathan Saunders was challenged by Molly Jo Shumaker, junior biochemistry major. Saunders pulled out the win to secure his second term in office.

“It’s a great feeling, but I’m so tired and sunburned,” Saunders, senior political science major, said.

Saunders campaigned all over campus in an effort to retain his position, spending most of Tuesday and Wednesday outside Billingsley Student Center speaking with students.

In his first term, Saunders spearheaded efforts to better the campus, such as the installation of the new sign just off Newman Road.

“It wasn’t just me, and a lot of the ideas were already there, it just took someone to kind of nudge them along,” he said.

Saunders lauded more open lines of communication with students, faculty and University administrators as one of the things he’s proud to have served over.

That communication is key for Saunders, saying he believes it’s vital for students to be aware of what is happening on campus and to get involved.

“I just, I hope students recognize that some of the major issues include, you know, class sizes,” he said.

“Class sizes, of course, communication, and also tuition. I mean, if our tuition’s going to raise, we can understand that, and we can respect that. But we want to be consulted a little bit as a student government, and we want to make sure there are no other alternatives.”

Saunders’ goals for the next year include opening communication between administrators and students even further, working on projects in and around the residence halls and involving himself more in statewide student government to ensure success for Southern in the future.