After a week of handshakes, Greene Street banners and Horseshoe portraits, the seven students running for Student Government executive offices took to the Russell House Theater stage for debate Monday night.
The discussion was split into three debates, one for each office: treasurer, vice president and president. And while issues such as campus safety and higher education affordability came into play, the candidates all emphasized two points in particular with little rapport: their experience and the need for a greater student presence in SG.
“I have the experience for this,” said treasurer candidate Natalie Hageman. “I have the passion, and I have a plan.”
Hageman currently chairs the student senate finance committee, in which she saw the new finance codes come to be, adding that she knows the codes better than anyone else.
Meanwhile, Hageman’s opponent Ryan Harman said he helped create the funding system SG currently employs as a comptroller under former Student Body Treasurer Coy Gibson.
“I’m doing this because of the organizations that I’ve been in,” Harman said, giving a nod to BGLSA and Carolina Productions, two organizations whose budget he has overseen. “I’d like to build a relationship between student organizations and student government that goes beyond myself.”
While vice presidential candidate David Leggett has the role of SG historian under his belt, he said more positions in SG need to be filled by those outside of the organization, since the goal is to represent the students.
“We have a lot of positions that aren’t filled that we need to fill,” Leggett said. “We need to represent the entire student body, not just Student Government.”
And when asked what the biggest problem in SG is, Leggett’s challenger Donnie Iorio said the problem isn’t with the organization; rather, the issue lies in students’ perception of it.
“I want SG to be able to act on the ideas that students have,” he said, echoing Leggett’s notion that elected officers are there to represent. “These leaders represent our student body.”
The three presidential candidates dabbled in prominent campus issues, such as community safety and rising tuition costs before the conversation ultimately turned to which of the three was most qualified to succeed current Student Body President Chase Mizzell.
Lindsay Richardson, SG’s current senate pro tempore, told the audience that the issues facing Student Government do not necessarily require big solutions, just creative ones. These solutions can come from the student body, she added, but those students may not be immediately inclined to run. But if pressing issues are not solved right away, Richardson told students, “I believe you asked the wrong person, you asked the wrong question or you asked at the wrong time.”
Chris Sumpter, a transfer student from USC Sumter where he was student body president, said the only way to know what organizations are all about is to talk to them and get them more involved in the process.
“I want collaboration and communication between SG and the student body,” he said, drawing emphasis to the need for the partnership between SG leaders and organizations. Without talking to these groups, officers can’t stand with them, he said.
Jameson Broggi, an SG newcomer, said he thought it was great that Sumpter and Richardson have been so deeply involved in SG, but new blood can be a coup for the organization.
And in the end, it was Broggi who took the debate past the confines of campus and looked to the Founding Fathers for advice.
“A leader is not necessarily someone who knows all the answers but someone who is humble enough to surround himself with experts,” he said.
Broggi said that, if elected, he would emulate George Washington and appoint his own Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton to advise him.