Each ticket had three minutes for opening statements, followed by responses to six questions.
What are the three most important issues facing campus?
Candidates from all three tickets agreed sexual assault is the most important issue facing campus.
“Certainly sexual assault is by and far the pressing issue that our campus faces,” said Andrew Ireland, UNIFY for IUSA presidential candidate. “It is an epidemic, and it must be stopped.”
What sets his ticket apart from the other two, Ireland said, is his ticket’s focus on affordability.
“We face a crisis today in higher generations of students that face so much debt that they are looking at 10, 15 years to pay it off,” he said.
To address affordability, Jack Langston, UNIFY for IUSA vice president of congress candidate, said the ticket hopes to eliminate tuition payments for internship credits and donate executive salaries to a textbook fund.
Nick Laszlo, Amplify for IUSA presidential candidate, said his ticket emphasizes cross-cultural development.
Laszlo has said the ticket hopes to introduce Skype sessions between incoming international students and current students, allowing incoming international students to ask current students questions, and forming an international student advisory board.
Wes Cuprill, INtouch for IUSA treasurer candidate, said his ticket’s focus on ethics is what sets it apart.
“I was an executive on the (Interfraternity Council), and we heard complaints a lot that the student ethics board was often very slow, not very transparent and often very intimidating,” he said. “So we want to work with the university to completely revamp that process.”
He said the ticket hopes to make the student ethics board more transparent.
How would your ticket increase student involvement?
Ireland of UNIFY for IUSA said increasing student involvement starts with building the campaign, particularly with putting together a diverse and representative ticket.
“If we really want to go and prove to students that it’s worthwhile voting within this election, that it’s worthwhile pursuing this, you have to put up a great slate of candidates and you have to put up a progressive policy platform,” he said. “And we’ve done just that.”
Ireland added that IUSA must be a transparent and accountable organization.
Laszlo of Amplify for IUSA disagreed. He said that while transparency is important, engagement is more so.
“Simply telling students what you’re doing is not enough,” he said. “You must find ways to make students more interested in IUSA, and that’s how you’re going to get higher voter turnout.”
Laszlo said the current administration, of which he is a part, has already taken steps toward increasing engagement through the introduction of moving speaking tours and student voice surveys.
Anne Tinder of INtouch for IUSA said her ticket would take further steps toward increasing student engagement by introducing an opt-in email.
“Our vision for this is a weekly email from IUSA that fills students in with what we’re doing, the progress we’re making, what we’re spending their money on,” she said.
Should a student government speak out on federal, state and local issues?
Laszlo of Amplify for IUSA said a student government should speak out on federal, state and local issues.
“Everyone on the executive team, or everyone in IUSA in general, should be mindful that, as a student in IU-Bloomington, you’re not only being affected by the policies that President McRobbie says or the policies that Provost Robel says,” he said.
Tinder agreed.
“It is definitely the student government’s responsibility to advocate on behalf of these issues as well,” she said. “I think we’ve seen this on IU’s campus recently with Freedom Indiana really taking hold on campus. That was very much a student-run initiative on this campus.”
Ireland of UNIFY for IUSA, however, disagreed.
“We are a representative body,” he said.
“We ought not to be taking sides in political issues. We ought to be working with the state house and the federal government when we can push policy that concerns student advocacy, but at the same time, we shouldn’t be meddling in divisive issues of the day.”
Additional debate questions were addressed in a previous story which can be read on idsnews.com.
