2015 SGA Meet the Candidates Debate recap

SGA candidates answered questions from the audience and debated their platforms during the election season’s first formal debate on March 26 in the Speaker’s Auditorium. The following were highlights of the night:
During this election season, Executive Vice President of SGA Sebastian Parra is running uncontested for the presidential chair. Parra said he is grateful for SGA’s hard work and hopes for students to ‘turn up’ at the polls this year.

“I’m very happy about our diversity. That’s something I like to highlight about our ticket. We have almost every ethnicity represented on our ticket. I am proud to say if elected I will become the first Latino president of the SGA,” he said.

Hannah Grant, current SGA Senate Clerk, is running uncontested for Vice President of Public Relations. She said she strives to increase student involvement with SGA by making herself more available and offering internships to students interested in marketing.

“I want to have open office hours. Right now, all vice presidents have office hours, but they’re held in the SGA office. For students not in student government, it can be a little intimidating to go into that office,” she said.

Gregory LaFortune, candidate for VP of Student Services, said if SGA elects to extend library hours, he plans on addressing Panther Express Shuttle hour extension options as well.

Many of those who will be at the library during extended hours are also commuters who park at Turner Field, according to LaFortune.

Teara Mayfield, running uncontested for Executive Vice President, said she looks forward to facing the challenge of student body growth.

“We represent a university that boasts 34,000 students, and coming fall ‘16, [Georgia State] will boast 55,000 students so it is hard to make sure you’re reaching out to everybody,” she said. “It’s easy to get up here and talk about transparency, but it’s hard to make 34,000 students see you … Our greatest challenge is [not] being able to reach out to as many students as we would like to. [Once] they come to our Senate meetings, they can see how diligently we are working to make things better as soon as possible.”