Polls closed this evening as students placed their votes for the Student Missionary Union president. This year, the race was between candidates Kyle Shanebeck, co-director of Missions Conference, and Chris Reeder, co-director of team development.

The SMU president’s role overall is to fulfill SMU’s mission statement: to motivate and mobilize students to align their lives to the completion of the Great Commission, said current SMU President Adam Payton.

Reeder began his missionary journey in 2005 when he went on his first mission trip to England. Since then he has been on six mission trips and is now preparing to go to Senegal with Pioneers for his intercultural studies internship.

“SMU for too long has been the same huddle of missions kids,” said Reeder.

“SMU needs to deepen its involvement within the Biola community … it is a service to the whole Biola community,” said Reeder. He plans on doing this through SMU-focused chapels, prayer groups, and through the implementation of year-round mission work.

Shanbeck, a junior majoring in biological science, took a different approach in the campaign. Every single person, no matter what their major, has a role in the Great Commission, he said.

Shanebeck also emphasized his plan to integrate SMU with the Biola community and to make students more aware of the opportunity they have to serve as mission leaders, since it is the Student Missionary Union.

While this past year SMU has upgraded its work environment, according to Payton, this year’s candidates have a better foundation on which to implement their ideas about what SMU should do on campus.

“[It’s] not about events, but vision. Events can change, but vision remains the same,” said Payton.

Although both candidates have shared their vision of advancing SMU’s impact in the Biola community as well as their strategies for reaching those goals, students will ultimately decide who leads this department next year.

The winner will be announced on The Chimes Online after 10 p.m. today.