A lack of time to effectively ask and answer questions led to disappointment amongst candidates and students with the structure of this year’s Student Government Association (SGA) election debate.
Candidates were given up to 90 seconds to answer questions from the moderator, audience and media. The audience and media were also limited in how long questions could be.
“I pay my tuition just like everybody else,” student Grant MacNeil said to the moderators when told there may not be enough time for everyone to ask their questions.
Candidates felt there wasn’t enough time to answer questions either. When the candidates for vice president of Student Services took the stage, candidate Teara Mayfield was stopped mid sentence by a moderator. After the crowd bellowed in “ooh’s” and made their distaste known, the moderator apologized. Mayfield requested that the moderators give them warnings for when their time to answer a question was ending.
“I’ll be brutally honest. I don’t like that they didn’t have enough time to speak. [The candidates] should have had at least five minutes,” Senator Justin Brightharp from the College of Arts and Sciences said.
Brightharp said he didn’t hear enough from the candidates to make an informed decision on who to vote for.
Vice President (VP) of Student Services candidate Drake Greer also said that time was an issue.
“We could have answered questions better,” he said when asked if more time would have helped.
Tensions on Stage
When the vice presidential and executive candidates took the stage to debate, they were permitted to ask their opponents one question at the end.
During the presidential and executive vice presidential debate, Presidential candidate Lanier Henson asked his opponent Victoria Davis if she knew what committees she would be serving as co-chair for if she won the presidency. He also asked whether or not she knew what bill 19 was, which led to a mixture of cheers and roars from the crowd.
Davis stated that she was new to SGA and therefore did not know, which led to the crowd getting even louder.
Candidate for VP of Public Relations Olivia Hightower said SGA had spent 9,000 dollars on public relations and only 10 percent was used on students under incumbent Camryn Bradley’s vice presidency. She then told him her ticket, Team Ethics, could do a better job than him.
Mayfield’s opponent, Drake Greer, asked Mayfield why accountability was not important to her party, Team Impact. She responded by saying what is real does not need to be explained.
Senate candidate Kyael Moss from the Andrew Young school of Policy Studies said the two parties, Team Impact and Students First, brought on too much anxiety during the debate.
“There was so much hostility… I thought it was distasteful,” he said.
Students respond
Marketing major Olivia Thompson said she felt the debate got out of hand.
“Some of the audience members didn’t do research [before they asked their questions], but overall the candidates handled the questions well,” she said.
However, some students felt that the debate went well despite the tension.
“The debate overall was good but the disrespect of the candidates and audience members did not represent GSU or SGA,” sophomore Avien Gober said.
Candidates respond
Senate candidate from the Team Ethics ticket, Joash Thomas, said the problems during the debate such as lack of time to answer questions and overall disrespect could be something to keep in mind moving forward and issues should be resolved so there won’t be as many angry people next year.
Moving forward, Greer said he wants to set a good example.
“We are here to be tough on the problem and soft on the people,” Greer said.
Current Senator responds
Senator Brightharp said the election commission could have done better this year. He also said there should have been more than a week for candidates to campaign. He said the bylaws that disallow this need to revised and restrictions need to be taken off since Georgia State is a large university and candidates need more time to go out and talk to people.
He also said that because he is leaving SGA after this school year, he wants to ensure the people succeeding him make up a better senate.
“I wish we did better as a senate. Some of us did but are unfortunately not running for reelection,” Brightharp said.
He also said he hopes those coming into the senate know what they are getting into.
“It’s not a walk in the park,” he said.
Tacking the issues
Candidate Henson said that the much demanded 24-hour library would be in place by the fall of 2015. He said when the new law library opens, the old one will become a 24-hour study space for students. He said even though there won’t be any physical books, there will be computers and printers for students to use.
When Vice Presidential candidate Matthew Altman said that they would push for the library to remain open until 2 a.m. for the fall of 2014, Henson said this has already been done and that he will push for the library to remain open longer, first until 3 a.m. and then until 4 a.m.
Candidate Hightower said in order to address transparency issues, she would be pushing for more social media outreach so students can directly contact SGA with their issues. She said she would also hold a weekly coffee house in addition to town hall meetings so students can come to her and have an informal in person discussion on issues they are facing.
Candidate Greer said in order to increase awareness of student services on campus, he would push for more transparency of SGA surveys online for students to fill out. His opponent, candidate Mayfield, said she would be putting out a pamphlet that outlines student services offered by the University.
