Touting individual platforms and shying away from direct personal criticism, candidates for next year’s A.S. presidency faced off at a midday debate Tuesday in Price Center Plaza. While all four called for increasing the council’s connection to students, they offered different approaches to this longstanding A.S. goal, ranging from online polling and Library Walk tabling to creating an A.S. Twitter account.
Upgrading the Sun God Festival; fighting for free-speech rights on campus; reducing the Grove Caffe’s massive debt; expanding athletics programs; streamlining student organization funding allocations; and working to reduce UC student fees rounded out the major issues on the candidates’ platforms.
Hoping to extend her slate’s three-year streak in the council’s top office, Student Voice! candidate Erin Brodwin stressed her dedication to student empowerment, access and affordability and building a strong campus community.
Brodwin, the current associate vice president of local affairs, said she was the best candidate for the job because her experience working with student organizations, administrators and campuswide committees has afforded her the ability to address student needs from multiple perspectives.
Sixth College junior Utsav Gupta, current associate vice president of student organizations, is running as an independent candidate after failing to secure the backing of Student Voice!.
Though he identified with Brodwin on many issues, Gupta stressed that he would also work to ‘uncage’ the Sun God Festival from RIMAC Field ‘mdash; challenging the unpopular model implemented last year in response to safety concerns ‘mdash; and institute an annual Fall Quarter survey to gauge student priorities.
Clean Slate candidate Adam Teitelbaum, former president of fraternity Alpha Epsilon Pi, criticized previous Student Voice! administrations, asserting that the A.S. Council had become out of touch with the average student because of its extensive bureaucracy.
Teitelbaum said that if elected, he would attend campus events and establish AOL Instant Messenger, Facebook and Twitter accounts for the council ‘mdash; a grassroots effort to gather peer input and make sure students set the A.S. agenda, not administrators.
Giang Pham, a Thurgood Marshall College junior running independently, made a brief statement criticizing the administration for its handling of the Literature Building cancer cluster. He then stood up and exited the stage, declaring, ‘Don’t vote for me.’
During the last 45 minutes of the debate, candidates fielded questions from audience members about issues ranging from the cost of housing and dining to funding for campus nightclub the Loft to due process during eviction proceedings.
Students will cast their votes in the 2009-10 A.S. elections on TritonLink from April 6 to April 10.
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