Pat McGuiness has considered running for president of Student Senate for “quite a while,” and for a variety of reasons the junior history major decided to go for it a few weeks ago.

“I don’t think a lot of people know what Senate does,” McGuiness said. “I’d like to get the student body more aware and involved because it affects them.”

McGuiness and his running mate, senior exercise management major Matthew Klimek, are the only ticket of the four in the running that has no UW-Eau Claire Senate experience.

McGuiness said if they can mobilize the students who haven’t voted in the past, it could be to his ticket’s advantage. If elected, McGuiness said their lack of Senate experience would actually be a plus.

“We’d be fresh voices,” he said. “We’d be different in terms of Senate being their own little world.

“If it’s truly going to be representative then you need more than 17 percent.”

McGuiness was referring to the 17 percent that was the student turnout for last year’s election that Justin Hentges and Erin Brandt won 905 votes to 831 over Colin Clark and Kelly Witkowski.

“I’m sure the senators do a great job and talk to some people,” McGuiness said. “But how representative is (17 percent)?”

One of the major issues the McGuiness/Klimek ticket will run on is that of the university’s parking office. McGuiness said it’s a run-for-profit organization and his experiences with the office and the concerns he’s heard from friends and other students lead him to believe it’s an issue that needs to be dealt with.

“I’ve heard a lot about it, so it’s a student issue,” he said.

McGuiness said he would look at lowering fees because UW-Eau Claire is a public university and in general students don’t have a lot of money.

The proposed expansion to Davies Center is another topic that they will discuss. Klimek said the potential increase in segregated fees the expansion would bring is important and needs to be discussed, especially because just 1,205 students voted “yes” for the proposal on a campus of more than 10,000.

“Maybe we could look at some improvements instead of an addition,” Klimek said, adding that the small hallway between Schofield Hall and Davies is one potential area that could be improved.