“I want to applaud each and every one of you, as candidates, and whoever else is running, for stepping forward and putting yourself out there to run for office,” Bloomington Mayor Mark Kruzan, who moderated the debate, said during opening remarks. “From having read all of your platforms online, it’s clear that you’re all running to make life better for your fellow student and that’s a fact of which you should all take great pride.”
Ticket representatives largely focused on experience during opening remarks, with Amplify for IUSA, running as the incumbent, choosing to stress its members’ wealth of ?experience.
“Each of us have been involved with IUSA for the majority of our college careers and we all agree that working with this organization has been the most rewarding part of our experience at IU,” said Nick Laszlo, Amplify for IUSA presidential candidate.
“We are the best people to implement these policy points,” he said. “We have the passion, creativity and administrative know-how to ensure that each of these policy points is immediately actionable.
UNIFY for IUSA, running as the challenger, chose instead to stress its members’ lack of experience.
“Executives on the other tickets will talk about their long experiences within IUSA, and our lack thereof,” said Andrew Ireland, UNIFY for IUSA presidential candidate. “But I will tell you this, that 10, 15 years of communal complacency hold no water to one year of action.”
INtouch for IUSA, with a mix of current administrators and new candidates, chose to stress both its members’ wealth of experience and lack thereof.
“We think it’s time for change in the administration,” said Anne Tinder, INtouch for IUSA presidential candidate. “And we think we’re a balance of experience and new ideas.”
What is your ticket’s top priority?
Amplify for IUSA presidential candidate Laszlo said his ticket would prioritize community engagement.
“A main motivation behind that is realizing that the Bloomington community is so vibrant and has so many unique people and has so many unique opportunities for students to get involved,” he said.
To increase community engagement, Laszlo said the ticket hopes to introduce new community events, including a community carnival and tailgates at the soccer and baseball games.
Wes Cuprill, INtouch for IUSA treasurer candidate, said his ticket would prioritize collaboration.
“That ties in everything,” he said. “To be able to collaborate with all student organizations on this campus, we’re able to work with them and to create better programs. I think when more people work together it’s more effective.”
To increase collaboration, INtouch presidential candidate Tinder said the ticket hopes to improve myINvolvement to make the database of student organizations easier to access and easier ?to use.
Jack Langston, UNIFY for IUSA vice president of Congress candidate, said his ticket would prioritize transparency and accountability.
“It’s not enough to make promises during election season,” he said. “We need to uphold firmly these promises throughout the year. For the past several years, we’ve seen the current administration engage in disorganized and negligent practices.”
How would your ticket build upon or improve the current administration?
Tickets largely focused on internal collaboration when discussing potential improvements to the current administration.
Jalen Watkins, INtouch for IUSA vice president of Congress candidate, said his ticket would tackle the lack of collaboration between the three branches, particularly between Congress and the executive branch.
“Right now, I’m on Congress, so I get to see firsthand how the different branches interact between each other,” he said. “And when you have a democratic process, you need collaboration between the different branches ... And right now, there’s a lack of communication between all of the three branches.”
A.J. Gauthier, Amplify for IUSA treasurer candidate, disagreed with Watkins, saying the executive branch is updated each week on Congress’ progress.
Watkins, however, disagreed with Gauthier, saying Congress, however, is not updated each week on the executive branch’s progress.
“This is something that needs to go both ways, so it’s not just the executive branch knowing everything, but it’s all the branches knowing everything,” he said.
UNIFY for IUSA presidential candidate Ireland, though not commenting on collaboration, or lack thereof, said IUSA must look internally before it looks ?externally.
“Until we fix the problems within IUSA, we’ll never have the capacity to solve the problems outside of IUSA,” he said.
Should a student government focus on advocacy or programming?
Discussion about the role of student government brought agreement for the first time of the night, with all tickets largely agreeing that student government representatives are advocators before programmers.
“In the end, IUSA’s primary purpose is to serve as a representative body for all students, that it unifies the student voice, that it primarily stands as an advocacy group, that it is charged with bringing students together to enact change on this campus and to grow a better community,” Ireland said.
