Tuesday night’s ASUO executive candidate debate gave those running for student body president and vice president the opportunity to define their messages and outline the vision behind their campaigns, but resulted in little back-and-forth debate.
Though the debate drew a larger crowd than the elections board’s Q&A session held a week earlier, candidates remarked afterward that students not involved in campaigns and student government were still conspicuously absent. However, presidential candidate Emma Kallaway declared it “probably the best turnout we’ve seen for a debate.”
Those who did attend got to see each executive ticket’s candidates present the central ideas behind their campaigns and, for the first time, formally answer questions submitted by the voters both in the audience and via e-mail.
Independent candidates Emma Kallaway and Ryan McCarrel and True Blue Student Coalition’s Nick Schultz all questioned the morality of Oregon Action Team’s Michelle Haley and Ted Sebastian, who have emphasized governmental and fiscal responsibility and the importance of football tickets to students.
McCarrel was especially cutting, accusing Haley of bribery, overspending and impropriety in accepting the endorsement of a student wearing the Oregon Duck costume. “That’s my duck, too,” McCarrel said.
McCarrel used Haley as an example of his campaign’s central message – that ASUO campaigns have alienated students. He said student government is insular and ineffective, but mentioned his proposal to move student government online less frequently than in previous speeches.
True Blue’s Schultz and Lidiana Soto offered a diametrically opposed message. Schultz said he would work toward “motivating and enchanting the students who are not currently involved in student government.”
“Students don’t see results,” Schultz said. “Next year we will prove that those do exist.”
Kallaway and her running mate Getachew Kassa, meanwhile, called for greater student involvement in student government, saying they would strive for greater outreach through fundraising, more events and updating the ASUO’s Web site.
“We want to focus on getting students to feel like the ASUO is actually representing them and their issues,” Kallaway said.
Students First candidates Carina Miller and Nick Gower said they were nervous before the debate but spoke quickly and specifically about their campaign, which seeks to streamline the workings of student government to emphasize essential services and create a process more sympathetic to the needs of programs.
“We need to emphasize basic necessities and not the luxuries,” Miller said.
Candidates said afterward that they enjoyed the debate.
Sebastian smiled frequently and drew laughs from the audience with his responses such as “I don’t smoke