Student Senate presidential candidates Rob Leary and Molly Shea clashed over the steps that senate should take next year in the final presidential debate before Thursday's election.
The debate last night attracted about 50 people, many of whom were members of Leary's iOU ticket, Shea's Unite! ticket or employees of The Post, which sponsored the debate. The two presidential hopefuls shared many of the same goals for senate but disagreed on how to accomplish them.
Both candidates said Student Senate should take some role in representing graduate students, that the current senate has not adequately engaged students and that campaign finance records should be public.
The candidates disagreed on how senate should be run. Leary emphasized that senate needs to aggressively seek student input through marketing and outreach, while Shea said the structure itself is flawed, supporting altering the senate's constitution to create a direct participatory democracy.
Shea criticized members of the iOU ticket, many of whom are veterans of the senate. She said that, though they had stepped up their efforts this year, they had not done a good enough job representing students during previous years.
Maybe it isn't something they are inherently interested in all the time
Shea said.
Leary warned that a direct democracy could lead to certain groups unduly influencing a vote.
Unite! and iOU have the same goals Leary said, but I just think Unite! is going about it the wrong way.
Both candidates expressed disappointment in student behavior at Palmerfest Saturday. The street fest nearly erupted in a riot and had to be shut down by police.
I saw it firsthand Leary said. I was dumbfounded. Tribal
was how they were acting.
It was indicative of a lack of community connection to Athens
Shea said.
The two also disagreed on the need for an expensive campaign. Shea's entire campaign raised $200 while Leary raised $3,500.
I would wonder about buying your way into senate versus grassroots hard work
Shea said.
We told a lot of people about our vision
and they believed in our vision
Leary said.
Still, the two candidates complimented each other's parties and made it clear that they were willing to work with one another's members in the event that members of both parties were elected for next year.
Leary complimented Unite! party's vision of empowerment, while Shea said iOU did a good job with its outreach and advertising campaigns.
My goal is not to change the structure of senate but to work in the structure with effective leaders. Leary said.
Alone we cannot create these changes
but together the sky's the limit
Shea said.
