Debate focuses on student involvement (Photo by John Schreiber, The Daily Campus)
Student Senate officer candidates met in the Hughes-Trigg Center Commons on Tuesday to debate and discuss their platforms for the upcoming election.
Liz Healy, SMU’s current student body president, hosted the debate. The offices included were president, vice president and secretary. The elections will be held today and tomorrow, and the results will be announced on Friday.
Although each of the presidential candidates had a number of platforms, they all had one point in common: student involvement.
Brooks Powell, the only candidate for secretary, voiced his concern for upholding SMU traditions and spirit. Brooks said he wanted students to revitalize their enthusiasm for campus life and that he wanted to “revamp Student Senate.”
Jace Hinderland, a presidential candidate, thinks the students need to take a more proactive role.
“The students don’t think that they have a voice with the Senate, and that’s a problem,” Hinderland said.
Both Taylor Russ and Michelle Wigianto, also presidential candidates, agreed with Henderson.
“Something I want to look at is developing relationships among our student organizations, the administrations and the Senate,” Russ said.
The candidates for the other offices also believe there is a lack of student involvement on campus. Jonathan Lane, currently serving in the Senate, believes the vice president position provides a liaison between the student body and the university. Other vice presidential candidates are Willie Stewart and Katherine Tullos.
Russ’ main platform was security. He mentioned the fraternities and sororities have problems with “faulty doors and unwanted night time visitors.”
“There are easy solutions to stepping up security over there,” Russ added.
Russ also said he has heard a lot of complaints about the crosswalks on sorority row and by the new Dedman Center. Both crosswalks are located along curves, and he said many people have told him they are dodging cars trying to get across the street.
In the next part of the debate, the candidates asked each other questions regarding their platform specifics.
Hinderland asked Wigianto about what she thought the administration’s attitude should be toward Greek life and vice versa.
Wigianto said she does not believe the administration and the Greek community are disconnected.
“I’ll be honest, I’m not part of the Greek community, but I have a lot of friends who are Greek,” she said.
Wigianto asked Russ how he implemented his goals serving as current vice president this semester. Russ responded that the vice president’s job consists of running Senate meetings, which interfered with his availability to adhere to his original agenda, which focused on “outside issues.”
Brief closing arguments followed. Wigianto said she did not want to start a “Greek bashing session” but desired that her platform focus on needs of the student body as a whole, including improving campus security and encouraging student involvement.
Hinderland reiterated that SMU students need “to take a more proactive role, and they can do that by electing a more proactive leader.”
Russ said he had learned and grown by serving this semester in Senate as a student leader and that he was “willing and ready to listen to [the students’] issues and communicate them with the administration.”
At the close, Healy thanked everyone for attending and mentioned that this election is an “extremely important election,” because it is the only election involving the entire student body.
After attending the debate, student Katherine Rose said she had a better idea of who will get her vote.
Rose, a transfer student, said before she attended the debate she did not know who she wanted to vote for because she did not know who any of the candidates were.
“I feel like it [the debate] gave me better insight as to what there stances are, and I now have an idea who to vote for,” she said.
Elections will be held until Thursday at 7 p.m. To vote, log on to http://www.smu.edu/elections.
