
Candidates for Student Body Officer positions debate Tuesday in the Hughes-Trigg Commons. From left to right (SPENCER EGGERS/The Daily Campus)
The original article inadvertently left out a “not” in a quote by Austin Prentice. The story should read: “Looking out at this crowd right now, you cannot tell me that we are not a diverse student body.” The Daily Campus regrets the error.
While no one was throwing punches, things got a little heated in the Hughes-Trigg Commons area Tuesday evening.
Student Body Officer candidates gathered for the Student Body Officers Debate, where they asked and answered questions about their positions and past actions.
Moderator Mark McPhail, chair of the corporate communications and public affairs department, asked the candidates two questions about the most important quality in a leader and which leader they felt they best identified with. Candidates then took questions from the audience and from each other.
One student asked the candidates which actions from the administration that they disagreed with.
Jake Torres, who is running for Student Body President, expressed dissatisfaction with the school’s acceptance of two mustangs from T. Boone Pickens.
“I really disagreed with the way they [the administration] treated Peruna,” he said, noting that the administration accepted them “without really asking any of the students.”
Torres cited this as an example which “reflects a bigger issue—that is the disconnect with the wishes of the students and the actions taken by the administration.”
Presidential candidate Jack Benage garnered a round of applause when he stated that students should be given more reading days at the end of the semester.
“The administration and the President’s Task Force has removed a few of our reading days to try to avoid students trying to take the extra time, instead of studying, to go party,” he said. “I think that’s something we need to work on—to get those reading days back as all the students shouldn’t be punished because someone else is choosing to misuse their time.”
Most of the questioning focused on past legislation and the impact that it had.
One student, who was a member of the Association of Black Students, questioned Vice Presidential candidate Alex Ehmke about why he voiced opposition to special interest and minority seats when Senate was discussing adding new seats while still attending an ABS meeting. ABS supports adding more special interest seats.
Ehmke acknowledged that he did oppose the creation of new seats and voiced opposition to current seats. He said it “wasn’t a malicious attack,” but he felt that Senate could represent everyone without the use of special interest seats.
Fellow Vice Presidential candidate Austin Prentice also asked Ehmke why he did not support special interest seats.
“Looking out at this crowd right now, you cannot tell me that we are a diverse student body,” Prentice said. “You cannot tell me that having African-American, Asian-American, Hispanic-American, international senate seats does not add a vital, vital part to the Student Senate.”
Prentice described himself as a “strong supporter” of minority and special interest seats. His name appears on the legislation that proposed adding a sexual orientation seat.
“When I look out on this group, I don’t see a single person I don’t think I could talk to, who I don’t think I can communicate with, find out what’s concerning them on campus and address that concern,” Ehmke said. “I don’t think there’s any issue that is so complicated or so esoteric to one group on campus that I cannot comprehend it.”
Presidential candidate Derek Hubbard noted that he had passed legislation concerning parking signage—and that it had been successfully implemented. Hubbard also worked to see if mirrors could be put up in Binkley Garage. That plan is in development.
The same ABS member asked Presidential candidate Jack Benage about unity, saying she had only seen Presidential candidate Jake Torres “actively working” on addressing the issue of unity.
“Though I have not been to any Association of Black Students meetings, I do regularly go to EASA Night Market, participate in the ISA Boba Tea sale,” Benage said. “I really do care about student organizations and do participate. But I’m only one person; I can only be in so many places at one time.”
Torres asked fellow Presidential candidate Kellie Spano (who has written articles for The Daily Campus) how she planned to implement one of her goals: having scholarships increase with inflation and rising tuition costs. Spano responded by saying this could be accomplished by tapping into the rainy day fund, redoing the irrigation system on the Main Quad or fundraising. She emphasized that there were many ways money could be found if SMU reduced its water and energy consumption.
Benage asked Spano about the “sudden influx” of legislation from her in recent weeks, wondering why it hadn’t been more spread out.
Spano replied saying that it had not been a sudden influx and that she had been working on legislation since last semester.
One student asked Ehmke why he sponsored a piece of legislation that would have allowed anonymous submissions of legislation in Senate.
Ehmke responded by saying he was trying to bring consistency to the rules of senate, since the bylaws allow for a secret vote. Ehmke would prefer there be no secret votes or secret legislation, but says that one cannot be present in the constitution without the other.
Vice Presidential candidate Matthew Neman declined to direct a question to one of his fellow candidates, saying he’d rather have the time go to students so they could ask a question. Later he expressed his desire to run, saying that he was frustrated with legislation getting passed but not implemented.
Secretary candidates Katie Perkins and Austin Poynter both asked each other questions. Poynter wanted to know what Perkins would do to help SMU students. Poynter has not passed any legislation during his time in Senate.