The New HampshireFriday, January 31, 20144 NEWS

By Catie Hallstaff writer

Thanks to a changed deadline, students scrambling to get petition signatures and applications in for Student Body Elections will get a second chance.

Originally, those who wanted to run for Student Body President, Student Body Vice President, and University System Student Board Representative (USSBR) had to apply by the first day of classes, Jan. 21. However, Al Pace, student senate speaker and election com-mittee chair, changed the dead-line.

Petitions are due by Janu-ary 31, Pace said in an email to the student population on Jan. 23. Previously, this deadline was set at January 21, but it has been ex-tended due to low response.

According to old reports from The New Hampshire, past appli-cation deadlines have been closer to March. Though Pace did not receive complaints from anyone about the Jan. 21 deadline, the pro-cess affects even him.

The application process isnt really something that I like or dis-like, it is simply part of the overall election process, Pace said. Al-though, the change in deadline that was made this year has put some stress on the process as a whole.

Student Body Elections are on Feb. 17 and Feb. 18, and they are likely to look different from last year.

I would expect this election season to be more timid than last year, Pace said. We had an un-precedented number of candidates last year that made for a more ex-citing election season.

Last year there were five pairs

that ran for student body president and vice president, leading to many conversations around campus about who should win and why. Merrill and McKernan eventually won in a very diverse race.

So what are Bryan Merrill and William McKernan, the Student Body President and Vice President, doing this election?

Not what youd expect.Merrill wants to be on the

University System of New Hamp-

shire Board of Trustees, taking a seat next to the people that decide UNHs future: the governor, ap-pointed members and New Hamp-shires four college and university presidents, among others.

Next years my senior year, Merrill said, explaining why he wont run for president a second time. Im in the Honors program I have two capstones or some-thing like that. I have a lot on my plate senior year, a lot of important things. And I would not be able to give the presidency 100 percent. And in my mind, thats totally un-fair.

Merrill said that the trustee position he is applying for is ar-guably more impactful, but its not as much of a time commitment as the presidency, though he did con-sider running for president again. Since Merrill has connections now, he can continue on with projects he has already started and allow someone new to step up.

Most people dont realize the importance of it, they dont realize what it does, Merrill said about the trustee position. Presi-dent sounds sexier than trustee, but they dont realize the actual impact it has. It is considered the most reputable, respectable, impactful and important board in the state. Its the upper-level leadership posi-tions in all of New Hampshire.

Without Merrill in the presi-dential seat, McKernan has made plans of his own.

McKernan has a summer in-ternship at accounting firm Caron

& Bletzer, PLLC. According to student senate bylaws, he cannot run for a presidential-related seat because he will be unavailable to work over the summer.

Instead, McKernan is running for one of the Student Activity Fee Organization positions, but did not wish to convey the specific posi-tion, Merrill said.

With Merrill and McKernan removed from the presidential side of the election, those empty posi-

tions beg the question: Who will run in the Student Body Elections?

The election is valid as long as at least one person runs for each position, but of course it would be great to have many candidates, Pace said. I would hope that they already know, but these applica-tions are open to all undergraduate students [with some restrictions regarding the number of semesters spent at UNH] and I encourage anyone who is interested to apply.

Deadline extended for Student Body Election applications

The election is valid as long as at least one person runs for each position, but of course it would be great to have many candidates.

Al PaceStudent Senate Speaker and

Election Committee Chair

SuSan Doucet/Staff

Al Pace, student senate speaker and election committee chair, has officially changed the deadline for Student Body Election signature petitions and applications, citing a low response from the student population. Petitions and applications, originally due Jan. 21, are now due Jan. 31. Student Body Elections will be held Feb. 17 and 18.

By aP StaFFassociated Press

CONCORD New Hamp-shire needs to increase and improve community-based treatment for people with mental illness, accord-ing to a review conducted after a series of violent incidents involv-ing people with acute mental illness who were waiting in emergency rooms for care or transfer to a men-tal health facility.

The review recommends the

state seek public and private help to increase the number of non-emer-gency room beds for mental health patients and expand the number of community-based services.

The report calls for expanded access to acute care beds, creat-ing designated receiving facilities for mental health patients, more community residence beds and subsidies for housing and support services. It also recommends 10 new Assertive Community Treat-ment Teams and asks hospitals to

develop a telephone or web-based system to share information about availability of beds when none are available at a Designated Receiving Facility.

The review team was made up of former Supreme Court Jus-tice Joseph Nadeau, who currently chairs the states Board of Mental Health Practice, Dr. Alexander de Nesnera from the Geisel School of Medicine and the Associate Medi-cal Director of the New Hampshire Hospital, and Senior Assistant At-

torney General Michael Brown. They also found additional invest-ment is needed to address housing, substance abuse in patients with acute mental illness, more training for hospital personnel and expand-ed access to health insurance.

Gov. Maggie Hassan had re-quested the review in November af-ter a number of troubling incidents that automatically trigger a review of practices. In one, a man who had been waiting for three days in the Elliot Hospital emergency depart-ment to be involuntarily admitted to the New Hampshire hospital, attacked two hospital employees, critically injuring both.

The report repeats findings re-leased in December as part of the states settlement of a lawsuit that claimed New Hampshires lack of services violated the Americans with Disabilities Act. That suit also called for an expansion of crisis in-

tervention programs.Some of the other recommen-

dations in the review: Ask for a new interpretation

of, or waiver from, Medicaid rules that prohibit or restrict care provid-ed by psychiatric advanced practice registered nurses. That will allow APRNs to get treatment plans in place independently without wait-ing for a psychiatrist.

Explore ways to have Med-icaid reimburse providers for psy-chiatric care on the same basis as Medicare.

Increase education of emer-gency department physicians re-garding treatment for psychiatric patients.

Some of the recommendations can be paid for out of the state bud-get and through legislation required by the lawsuit settlement. Some, like the additional hospital training, will require private funding.

NH report identifies ways to improve mental health care

In Brief

MEREDITH Ticket sales are up 7 percent over last year for the annual ice fishing derby in Mer-edith, N.H.

The Citizen reports Meredith Bay, which is the location of the derbys headquarters, is full of bob-

houses and the number has been growing.

The 35th Meredith Rotary Ice Fishing Derby is scheduled for Feb. 8 and 9.

There will be $50,000 in cash prizes throughout the weekend.

Ticket sales up for annual ice fishing derby

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