Dozens showed up to the Student Government Association Executive Candidate Forum on Tuesday to watch the OneTech 2016 and Strive campaign teams answer questions on issues they may face if elected to student government.
The night kicked off with a debate between the candidates running for graduate vice president, Kevin Koestler of Strive and Chelsea Clark of OneTech 2016.
Chelsea Clark, Graduate Vice President candidate for OneTech.
Clark said she wants to ensure a fair environment to alleviate graduate students’ stress.
“I want to make sure that all [teaching assistants] are doing the same amount of work,” Clark said. “Because while some TAs might be grading papers every night of the week, other TAs might just be pushing a button to make the slides go forward, and they’re getting paid the same.”
Given that 68 percent of Tech’s graduate students are from other countries, both candidates said it is important for these students to feel supported.
Clark identified establishing a bus route to the student mosque and Campus Carry education for international students among her priorities.
Koestler said he would lobby at the national and state levels for affordable healthcare for international students. He plans to work with local vendors to provide international students with cost-efficient halal and kosher food, especially protein items, and wants to obtain scholarships to help them afford to travel home during school breaks.
Kevin Koestler, Graduate Vice President candidate for STRIVE.
Koestler said he is running because he wants to give back.
“Getting to know my classmates has given me another perspective on how to help them,” he said.
Clark, who has been involved with SGA for several years, said she knew her next step was an executive position. She had been approached by both blocs for different positions, but chose OneTech because of its character and proposed initiatives.
“[SGA] has changed my life, my attitude, my perspective, literally anything you can think of in a positive way,” Clark said.
Larken Lundgren of OneTech 2016 and Witt Westbrook of Strive, candidates for internal vice president, were next on the debate podium.
Larken Lundgren, Internal Vice President candidate for OneTech.
Lundgren, who chairs SGA’s budget and finance committee, said one of her priorities is to increase student organization funds.
“These student orgs, they don’t need an extra million dollars,” Lundgren said. “They need an extra $20-30,000, and it can make a huge difference.”
Westbrook said some organizations do not use all of their SGA funding, which could be redistributed to other groups that need it.
Amber Yanez, SGA ‘s current internal vice president, asked how the candidates will motivate and inspire new senators who think SGA is just something to put on their resume.
Witt Westbrook, Internal Vice President candidate for STRIVE.
Lundgren said the most important thing is to show the senators the power and resources they have.
“If we can keep empowering them and keep showing them that they have the opportunity to do all these things, then I think motivating and inspiring the senators… would be very, very easy to accomplish,” Lundgren said.
Westbrook said engaging the senators should start with a mandatory retreat to ensure “you’ve got the right people in the organization who wanna be there for the right reasons.”
It is important to remind senators what is expected of them during both semesters, even though they may be campaigning, Westbrook said, adding that the executive board is currently leading by example.
If senators do their jobs well in the first semester, legislation should carry over to the second semester, ensuring senators’ engagement, Lundgren said, but accountability is key.
Candidates for external vice president Alex Derossi of Strive and Chris Mitchell of OneTech 2016 kept all eyes on them by answering questions about students’ campus lives.
Chris Mitchell, External Vice President candidate for OneTech.
Mitchell said he would like to continue and expand the Tech to Town initiative as well as develop relationships with local and state officials.
“We need to open a line of communication between all the other major public university systems in the state of Texas,” Mitchell said.
To improve campus safety, Mitchell proposed that the license plate recognition system used to monitor cars entering the internal part of campus be expanded to every entrance and parking lot at Tech, which could decrease incidents such as Sunday’s attempted carjacking.
Both candidates identified sexual assault prevention as a priority and said continuing education is needed. Mitchell said he is a part of Define Your Line, an organization that educates about sexual assault and consent, and Derossi said he is involved with It’s On Us, a sexual assault prevention program started by President Obama.
“Students are the problem when it comes to sexual assault,” Derossi said. “It’s nothing that administrators can mandate, or it’s nothing our parents can tell us to do, it comes from the core.”
Mitchell said one of the best things about Define Your Line is that it is a student-run campaign. He said the campaign has made him more aware of sexual assault and harassment.
“We took a very practical, student-led approach as to what we can do to not only educate, but to get people and to encourage people to look at consent in a different way that is much more healthy, that is much more proactive,” Mitchell said.
Many women have expressed concern about walking on campus at night, Derossi said, and more lighting could help defer these fears.
Alex Derossi, External Vice President candidate for STRIVE.
“Adding more lights, you’d think it’d be a no-brainer, but it hasn’t happened,” Derossi said.
The candidates disagreed about the efficiency of the Texas Tech bus system.
Mitchell said it would be beneficial for Texas Tech to purchase its own buses instead of relying on Citibus and create more routes to places like South Overton.
“It will save us more money in the long run that we can devote to other projects … but, also, it will give us more freedom and more flexibility in where we can put these bus routes and how many bus routes we can have,” Mitchell said.
By contrast, Derossi said efficiency can be increased by adjusting routes, such as by transferring buses from less-used routes to ones that face higher demand at a given time of the day.
The presidential candidates, John Michael Getz of OneTech 2016 and Ben Sharp of Strive, faced off on a controversial question from the start: Campus Carry.
Getz said the law is here to stay, so the focus should be on education. He suggested a program similar to AlcoholEDU for weapons and more focused education for international students.
John Michael Getz, Presidential candidate for OneTech.
“There’s 2,860 international students,” Getz said. “That’s two thousand people who aren’t used to the western culture of guns being on campus. That’s something we need to work on.”
Sharp said campus carry is an emotional issue that requires across-the-board education.
“It’s not only educating the students who are afraid of guns, but it’s also educating those students who are going to hold guns because ultimately they’re the ones who are going to control the experience of the other students on campus,” Sharp said.
Sharp said he is excited to see Tech’s enrollment expand to 40,000 by 2020, but student experience can be improved by hiring more advisors and encouraging students to act as members of a family.
“Rather than focusing on 40,000, we need to focus on one,” Sharp said. “We need to focus on protecting the experience.”
He said SGA is responsible for listening to different communities on campus, such as minorities and LGBTQI, and making sure their members feel safe and heard. Sharp also hopes to create a town hall series where students can feel safe to express their ideas.
Getz said he hopes for the inclusion of family and gender-neutral bathrooms in the campus infrastructure plan, designation of prayer rooms in the Student Union Building, and an increase in the number of blue lights on campus.
Both presidential candidates echoed similar sentiments about their devotion to service.
Getz said he would be humbled to serve the student body as president, which is one of the most challenging and rewarding positions on campus.
“It’s not just about bringing inventory and stuff to student government, it’s about empowering what we already have,” Getz said.
In the end, Sharp said, servant leadership begins and ends with forgetting yourself.
Ben Sharp, Presidential candidate for STRIVE.
“The only way we can truly move forward is by understanding the areas where we fall behind, and by taking a practical approach to the issues that will be presented in our town hall series,” he said.
Voting will occur March 8 and 9.
Although certain Hub staffers may or may not support various campaigns, their views or opinions do not reflect those of The Hub@TTU as a whole. In the interest of fairness, The Hub@TTU will not be endorsing a particular campaign.
About Maddy McCarty
