Candidates for student body president, vice president and treasurer were grilled by moderators and duked it out Thursday night on the Russell House patio in the annual Student Government Executive Debate.
Debate coordinator Josh Watts, Election Commission Chair Amy DeWitt and The Daily Gamecock Editor-in-Chief Colin Campbell served as moderators.
As the sun began to set, the debate began with unopposed candidate for vice president, Chase Mizzell.
Questions largely focused on Mizzell’s platform, which places emphasis on initiatives like a campus food bank and a bike-sharing program instead of common complaints like parking and advisement.
“One of the reasons that Student Government has a somewhat disreputable idea around campus is that we promise things that we can’t do,” Mizzell said. “We’re constantly pursuing parking and bringing the CarolinaCard off campus, but it’s bad to campaign on parking without a solid plan. These are things we definitely work on, but they’re things you shouldn’t hang your campaign on.”
When asked what his plan would be if the widely touted food pantry did not come to fruition, he quickly responded with the Second Servings Program, providing needy students transportation to Harvest Hope Food Bank and starting a student-staffed campus kitchen.
The debate then moved on to the treasurer candidates, Coy Gibson and Yousef Ibreak, between whom there was an occasionally intense exchange.
When Watts asked whether the senate finance committee gives preference in fund allocation to “larger, more established organizations,” Gibson, the current senate finance committee chair, immediately shot back.
“Absolutely not. Absolutely not. We treat every organization fairly. We followed the guidelines set out for us, and we treated every organization as if they were the first to come to us,” Gibson said.
Gibson was then asked if he believed that was a fair approach to fund allocation, and he said he did. Ibreak, who was asked the same question, disagreed.
“Some students feel that there is some favoritism towards some organizations,” Ibreak said.
He continued to assert that putting the SG budget online, his main campaign point, would eliminate this feeling and the “lack of transparency” he believes there is in SG.
Ibreak was then asked what his platform consisted of besides creating a website where the SG budget would be posted, which has been a point he has campaigned heavily on.
“There’s a lack of transparency in other aspects; nobody knows how senators vote in the Senate Finance Committee. There’s no accountability,” Ibreak said.
He also addressed his relative lack of experience.
“While I haven’t had the opportunity to serve in senate finance committee, I did serve as student body treasurer in high school, where we had a budget of $5,000,” Ibreak said, to which some audience members laughed in response.
The three candidates for president, John Cuenin, Emily Saleeby and Kenny Tracy took the podium last.
Saleeby addressed her hopes to start work on plans to build a new Russell House if elected.
“It’s a big project, and I know it’s not a five-year project. The reality is 15 to 20 years,” Saleeby said.
Saleeby later stated campus safety as an initiative she had already started work on.
“Two weeks ago, I saw that the call boxes in front of Patterson weren’t working,” Saleeby said. “I had lunch with the USC Police Department last Wednesday, and that day and the day after, I saw those boxes were getting fixed.”
She listed increased lighting and more call boxes throughout Five Points, the Vista, south campus and central campus.
Cuenin, who has maintained that SG is “broken” and has been campaigning as an outsider despite two years of SG experience, detailed his plans to change the organization.
“I would make sure that the cabinet is meeting once a week and submitting reports biweekly about what they’re doing and what they need help doing,” said Cuenin, to which a cluster of his Beta Theta Pi brothers applauded. “We need to be as active on campus as we should be. We should continuously be showing what we do and communicate what we can do.”
In response to a question about taking the CarolinaCard off campus, Cuenin cited conflicts with the university’s contract with food service company Sodexo.
“It’s implausible; once we get it on the table, Sodexo will come in and say that we can’t bring it to restaurants that they have alternatives to. The only things you can plausibly bring it to are gas stations, grocery stores and dry cleaners,” Cuenin said.
Tracy named parking and advisement as problematic when asked about the biggest issue facing USC students, and offered possible solutions.
“We’re looking into providing students with cheaper garage options. Online ticket payment is another thing that we’re working on, and it could get online within the next year,” Tracy said.
He also proposed transitioning advisement to an online system based on the one implemented in the School of Mass Communications and Information Studies.
Saleeby later questioned Tracy on the plausibility of changing the advisement system. Tracy cited the School of Hospitality and Retail Management’s transition to online advisement as proof that the transition is possible.
Tracy also faced a question from Cuenin, who called Tracy a “one-trick pony” and asked him to respond to claims by others that he did not address safety concerns while he was the secretary of safety and transportation.
“I think I’ve addressed many safety issues. The Carolina Cab is about getting people home from Five Points safely,” Tracy said.
He also cited his work on the Safety Walks program.
Candidates have less than a week left to campaign before elections start on Feb. 14.
