The Daily Gamecock

Recap: Student Government candidates discuss safety, mental health at debate

Candidates for the Student Government executive office discussed mental health, campus safety and diversity among other topics at the 2020 Student Government debate. 

The debate was moderated by elections commissioner Bennett Lunn, The Daily Gamecock editor-in-chief Erin Slowey and SGTV assistant station manager Spencer Buckler.

Student body president 

Samantha Mayberry and Isobel “Issy” Rushton are running for student body president. Mayberry is Student Body President Luke Rankin’s chief of staff, and Rushton serves on Rankin’s cabinet as the secretary of first-year involvement. 

Both candidates were asked about a possible disconnect between Student Government and the student body.

“If you ask any member of our community who is not involved in Student Government, the first thing they are going to say is they feel like it is exclusive, and I’ve even heard words such as ‘cult-like,’" Rushton said. "That is simply not acceptable for a governing body that should represent the entire population and every community of our diverse university.”

Mayberry agreed with Rushton and said this feeling of exclusivity is why she chose Crawford as her running mate.

“I was incredibly intentional about my choice of a running mate," Mayberry said. "By bringing in someone who has an outside perspective, I am going to work to include voices that haven’t previously been recognized in Student Government.”

Campus safety was also discussed by both candidates for president. Rushton said she and her running mate talked about implementing a safety week at USC in honor of Samantha Josephson. 

“This will not only be about rideshare. This will be about other aspects of safety as well," Rushton said. "This will include lighting on campus, this will include healthy relationships, this will include how to find off-campus housing that is safe and will keep your Carolina experience positive.”

Mayberry said safety is something she is “really passionate about.” Part of her platform includes a partnership with USCPD and Off-Campus Living and Neighborhood Relations that would let off-campus apartments receive a safety certification, following a vetting process.

“USCPD will look through reports from their sites and see if they are good campus partners, people that pledge to keep their students safe," Mayberry said.

Student body vice president

Zachary Crawford and Hannah White are running for student body vice president. 

White, who is running with Rushton, currently works as the director of programming under Student Body Vice President Sophie Davish. 

Crawford is running with Mayberry. He does not have Student Government experience. 

The vice president and the student body president’s cabinet work in programming. Both candidates were asked about the role of the vice president in relation to programming and how their programming would differ from that of the cabinet.

“The vice president is more than capable with working with cabinet officials," White said. "Specifically, Carolina Be-YOU-tiful Week is happening this week, and that is happening with a collaboration of the student body vice president office as well as the secretary of health and wellness.”

Crawford said he wants to listen to student organizations that are not usually represented.

“We ultimately tend to fixate on communities that speak louder, and so I wanna make sure the ones that are not necessarily screaming the loudest are still being heard,” Crawford said.

In answering a question about mental health, Crawford brought up a meeting he had with the Student Health Center. Crawford said partnerships with off-campus mental health organizations were discussed and Student Government could “pick up the slack” by helping students access these off-campus programs. 

“I want to make sure that the students have the means to get the external help that they would need,” Crawford said.

White said she wants to continue Stigma-Free USC and her campaign wants to add mental health resources to class syllabi.

“We (White and Rushton) would love to implement a mental health section on syllabi in order for students to know the resources that are available on campus and to know that not only their physical health is important, but their mental health,” White said.

Student body treasurer

Caden Askew is running uncontested for treasurer. He now serves as a comptroller under current treasurer Kate Lewis.

Askew said he wants to increase student awareness about the office and what it's role through an increased social media presence, which he said is “the best way to include young people.”

Transparency is one of the central parts of Askew’s platform. He said he wants to increase transparency by making the budget available to students in a way that is palatable.

“I want to blast it, I want to make it rolling, available," Askew said. "I want it to be a live budget, a living budget that updates in regular intervals that students can go and access via the Student Government website.”

Askew said he wants to focus on funding mental health initiatives. 

“I think it's important that mental health takes center stage when we talk about issues" Askew said. "I feel like mental health, maybe, got shafted a smidge in Kate’s budget.”

Speaker of the student senate

JD Jacobus, who is currently the chairman of the powers and responsibilities committee, is running uncontested for speaker of the student senate. 

Installing printing kiosks across campus is something Jacobus said he wants to advocate for as speaker.

“I think that we can all agree that printing on campus is not where it should be, that it’s a vital function,” Jacobus said.

Jacobus said, if elected, he will mediate conflict by enforcing a culture of professionalism within the student senate. 

“It's important for people to not be petty, don’t call others out, stay respectful at all times. And I think, as speaker, I have responsibility to enforce that,” Jacobus said.

He was asked a follow-up question about his own behavior during senate meetings. In the fall, he talked about Tinder during a student senate meeting. Jacobus said members of Student Government are still college students, and they should be “allowed to have a little fun.”

“If someone did have a problem with that though, I’d be glad to never make a joke like that again," Jacobus said. "That comes down to the idea of professionalism, making sure that we both know boundaries.”


Comments