There was more laughing than either clapping or booing at this week’s debate between executive A.S. candidates. The rained-out event was relocated to Price Center ballroom, where less than half of the room was full.
Tritons United! candidates April Deibert and Eddie Herrera speak with students after leaving the A.S. election debates.
Almost all attendees were Student Voice! and independent-party candidates.
“This is basically a meeting for our slate,” SV! commissioner of student services candidate Kaveh Cyrus joked to SV! A.S. presidential candidate Harry Khanna.
Cyrus might as well have been right. Only a few members of A.S. presidential candidate Daniel Watts’ Tritons United! slate showed up to the debate, and candidate for vice president external Eddie Herrera was the only slate member to speak at the microphone. Because the audience was principally SV! candidates, Herrera said, the school’s constituencies were not being addressed.
There were few, if any, students that were not members of the A.S. Council present for all of the debate. After reading his candidate statement, Herrera left the room, saying that he was going to Library Walk to speak with students.
“There is no foundation here,” Herrera said. “We need to go to take it to Library Walk to talk to real students about real students and real problems.”
Watts agreed with his slate members’ decision to not debate SV!.
“It was clear what the debate was,” he said. “It was a slam-fest for Student Voice!; they shouldn’t debate in an echoing chamber. The audience should be the students, but the only audience here was made up of people that already made up their minds. My candidates don’t want to waste time talking to a wall.”
The A.S. elections committee asked two questions of each candidate during the debate. Most questions were broad, and allowed the candidate to publicize general stances on issues. In many instances, specifics were not offered or asked for during the debate, which started 10 minutes late and ended 45 minutes early.
During the questions, SV! vice president external candidate Porsia Thomas touted the slate’s plans to continue the A.S. Council’s efforts in areas of outreach and lobbying. If elected, the external office should concentrate communication efforts locally with high schools south of San Diego’s Interstate 8, where many inner-city schools are located, Thomas said.
“We need to recognize that there isn’t diversity at UCSD,” she said. “We need to lobby to everyone, UC Regents and all, to make sure that there is funding for academic preparation, especially for high schools that don’t have resources to know that [there] are possibilities for college.”
Independent candidate Matt Corrales also proposed working locally, especially with other colleges such as San Diego State University and the University of San Diego, in outreach efforts. Increasing access to higher education is a priority, he said.
Corrales also emphasized a specific lobbying plan that included student consultation with the political science department.
Bryce Murray, an independent candidate for vice president finance, said he plans to investigate the efficiency of some student-funded programs, including the Academic Success Program. The council allocated more than $40,000 to ASP this year, though the program did not spend its fall allocation in previous years.
“We need to see how many people this program affects,” Murray said.
SV!’s candidate for the same position, Conrad Ohashi, said an overhaul of the Student Organization Funding Advisory Board is necessary. He pushed the launching of a Web site that would allow organizations to register and monitor their own budgets. Both Murray and Ohashi said focusing on student organizations would be their paramount goal. Janine Dellomes, a candidate for vice president internal, had no debating opponent, but said she hoped to build on the success of the current office.
“It was run well,” she said of this year’s A.S. Council. “I hope to improve on the format, as well as get more general public input during meetings.”
Dellomes did not elaborate on specific plans for increasing public input in her statement, and said she wanted to improve on current Vice President Internal Angela Fornero’s efforts.
Watts, whose platform is based mostly on reform of the A.S. Council, said that the debate was indicative of SV!’s attachment to the status quo.
