Like the election of which it was a part, Tuesday night’s ASUO candidate debate was conducted in a friendly, non-confrontational spirit.
Both tickets for the ASUO’s top two jobs — presidential candidates Amelie Rousseau and Alex McCafferty and their respective running mates, Maneesh Arora and Alden Williams — have been adamant throughout the campaign that their campaign platforms, their stances on issues facing the ASUO, will ultimately win them the election.
Tuesday night’s event seemed to bear that out, with neither pair of candidates attacking the other directly. Both passed up opportunities to directly respond to their opponents’ statements, and both repeatedly began their own statements by agreeing with their opponents.
However, on two subjects in particular, candidates did venture to draw implicit dichotomies between their tickets.
The first was the question of whether the ASUO should fund the Oregon Student Public Interest Research Group. A measure on the primary election ballot asked students whether they approved of funding the public advocacy organization, and the pro-OSPIRG side of the ballot measure prevailed.
Rousseau supports funding OSPIRG, while McCafferty cast votes on the Athletics and Contracts Finance Committee that helped prevent the group’s funding two years in a row.
Because the primary election vote was non-binding, those in both campaigns have said that races for positions whose occupants will ultimately decide whether OSPIRG is funded are more important than the referendum itself.
“Students need to turn out this week and decide whether they want OSPIRG on this campus,” said Arora, who has organized a campaign for OSPIRG.
Meanwhile, Williams said she and McCafferty would be more open to funding OSPIRG now that the ballot measure passed. However, McCafferty still questioned the group’s campaign to return to the ASUO’s budget.
“I fully support all the issues that they work on,” McCafferty said, adding, “However, I don’t think that OSPIRG is conducive to an ASUO contract.”
The other major distinction candidates drew between themselves was on the subject of which would be a better representative for students in sororities and fraternities. McCafferty wants to add a Greek advocate to the president’s staff if elected. Rousseau, a member of Pi Beta Phi sorority, does not.
“As ASUO president, I would be a Greek advocate,” Rousseau said. “I don’t know if (Greeks) need that kind of representation,” she said of the Greek advocate position, because many of those who will be on next year’s ASUO Senate will also be members of sororities and fraternities, while other communities for whom Rousseau wants to add advocates will not be so well-represented.
Williams, a member of Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority, argued the Greek advocate was still necessary.
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