By Patrick Holohan
The Student Government Association (SGA) presidential and vice presidential candidates took center stage in the Student Center Theater for the second and final debate prior to the election. The candidates debated, in a town hall format, some of the issues most pressing to University students.
On the stage of the practically empty theater sat presidential candidate Brent Weitzberg, a junior political science major and former president of SGA, and his running mate, Jared Berry, a junior music education major and the current vice president of SGA.
Opposite the Weitzberg-Berry ticket sat Sean Hutchinson, a senator who is a junior marketing major and who is involved with the University’s chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the International Students Organization, and vice presidential candidate Akeem Mellis, a junior political science and print journalism major who is the current SGA Rules Chair.
Both tickets had a similar response to the first question of how they felt about the University’s Greek Life, in that the four of them all support it and hope to further promote a healthy relationship between Greek organizations and SGA.
The tickets had a definitive ideological difference, though, when asked whether they would reestablish the parliamentarian position. The SGA currently does not have a parliamentarian, who is a non-partisan rules expert, this year. Weitzberg said he did not believe a parliamentarian was necessary because he believes that Berry “has the book memorized,” and that “[we] don’t want a cabinet position for the sake of having a cabinet position.”
Berry added that he has always opened his door for others. “If people disagree with the way I run things, [they] are welcome to come speak to me-but no one has ever come to me,” he said.
Mellis did not openly dispute that Berry knows the SGA rules, but he said that every year, no matter who is in charge, there are questions regarding rules. He said that it could only help to have an outside person dedicated to those rules. Mellis also said that he believed that it would lead to fewer “instances of questioning the vice president,” and that it would make SGA meetings run more quickly.
When a student asked the candidates what creative ideas they would bring to the office, both tickets strongly supported increasing co-sponsorship among clubs. Weitzberg explained that there were 23 co-sponsorships among clubs last year, and was disappointed that there were not more this year.
“Either ticket, it’s our responsibility, whoever wins, to create more co-sponsorship among clubs,” Hutchinson said.
When the Hutchinson-Mellis team was asked why students should believe in change if their campaign manager, current SGA President Peter DiSilvio, has not brought the change that students were looking for, the candidates were quick to distance themselves from their manager.
“We are not our campaign manager,” said the team. “We have vastly different styles.” The team also advised students to focus on what can be done in the future.
In a direct question to Hutchinson, Berry claimed that he had never seen Hutchinson stay for a full Senate meeting and wondered if this would change if he were elected. Hutchinson responded that he had an unavoidable class during meeting times this semester, and that it is something he “[plans] to change” next semester, but that he felt his academics were most important.