Opening day of Keeneland is just around the bend, but another race on UK’s campus begins a bit sooner.

On June 30, the staff representative on the Board of Trustees will be done serving her term, and Monday, campaigning for the position will begin.

Robynn Pease, director of Work Life since 2007, has served as the interim staff representative since July 2009, filling the spot for Russ Williams, who served as the staff representative from 1998 until his death on April 8, 2009.

Candidates for the staff representative position are Michael Adams, Sheila Brothers and Jann Burks, according to the Staff Senate Web site.

According to his platform statement, if elected, Adams, the facilities coordinator for the Department of Biology and a member of the UK community for more than 15 years, aims to remind the BOT that three legs — the staff, the faculty and the students — support UK, and he intends “to make sure that the staff is always considered when decisions are made regarding the operations of our university.”

Brothers has worked for UK for nearly  14 years and serves as the administrative coordinator in the Office of the Senate Council; in 2003, she was elected to Staff Senate chair. According to her platform statement, one of her proudest accomplishments is “having pioneered the practice of regularly including staff employees in many campus-wide committees.”

Burks has worked for UK for the past 19 years and has worked in the College of Dentistry and the Student Affairs Office, and she currently works as a development specialist in outreach for the College of Agriculture Extension Service. In her platform statement, Burks lists protecting staff benefits and expanding campus engagement as some of her main priorities.

In order to run for the BOT position, candidates must be regular, full-time staff members with no relatives employed at UK. If elected, he or she will serve from July 1, 2010 to June 30, 2013, according to a UK news release.

Important dates for staff representative election:

-An overview of the candidates is scheduled for Wednesday, April 7 from 5 to 7 p.m. in the W.T. Young Library Auditorium.

-An open forum is scheduled to take place between candidates during the Staff Senate meeting on Thursday, April 8. The forum will be at 1:30 p.m. in the W.T. Young Library Auditorium.

-Primary election voting will be from April 21 to May 5, and voting will be done electronically. Staff wishing to vote can click on the link on the Staff Senate Web site and use their linkblue account or UK ID number and birth date, according to the Staff Senate Web site.

-The two candidates with the most votes will have a debate during the May Staff Senate meeting at 1:30 p.m. Thursday, May 13 in the W.T. Young Library Auditorium.

-General election voting will be from May 19 to June 2, and procedures will be the same as the primary election.

-Results for the primary election will be available May 10, and results for the general election will be available June 7.

For more information on the staff representative elections, visit http://www.uky.edu/Staff/Senate/elect/index.htm).