As the candidates for this year's Student Senate election enter the last push of their campaigns, they hope to use the one debate not coordinated by senate as a final tool to win students' votes.
The presidential candidates from the Prepared to Engage, Act and Respond and SOUND tickets will debate for the third and final time at 7 tonight in Bentley Hall 021.
This is the second year The Post has hosted a debate for Student Senate candidates, said Ashley Lutz, The Post's editor-in-chief, who will moderate the debate. Lutz said she hopes that a debate not regulated by the Board of Elections will allow for a more frank discussion.
We will ask questions that haven't been addressed
Lutz said. We hope this will put the election on people's radar; it comes at a time when they should be asking a lot more questions from their Student Senate presidential candidates because they'll be voting in a few days.
City and County Affairs Commissioner Emily Hanford, P.E.A.R.'s presidential candidate, hopes to use the last debate to show students - especially those who haven't made up their minds as to how they will vote - how she will use the position of president.
The role of president is to stand up and say what you're feeling but it's also about listening to the student voice and taking action Hanford said.
Academic Affairs Commissioner Jesse Neader, running for president on the SOUND ticket, said he believes his preparation improved from the first debate to the second. He plans to review the university's strategic plan and budget in preparation for SOUND and P.E.A.R.'s last formal encounter.
I think The Post is very in touch with the everyday students' questions
Neader said. I think this debate's questions will be more geared toward what students are concerned with.
The second debate, which featured all of the executive candidates, boasted more specific questions from senate's Board of Elections, said Matthew Denhart, the board's chairman. He said he would like to see even more distinct responses from the candidates today.
I think they should really try to show what their tickets offer
Denhart said. We forbid negative campaigning
so they can't say why the other is bad
but I'd like to see them explain how outcomes are going to be different for students if P.E.A.R. is elected or SOUND is elected.
Denhart said he hopes The Post's involvement will draw a different group of people who may not know as much about senate as the candidates enter their final week of campaigning.
I hope that we get voters excited to get out and vote
Neader said. That's the ultimate goal; whether you vote for SOUND or you vote for P.E.A.R.
you just need to vote.
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