From water bottle stations, to the cost of summer tuition at Lipscomb, the 2015-2016 Student Government Association candidates covered a variety of topics at the Presidential Debate Monday night in Shamblin Theater.
Moderator Madeline Smith opened up the night by asking the senatorial candidates funny questions that were Tweeted out by audience members.
Vice Presidential candidates Ezra Fritz, Lauren Gardiner, Hannah Passamonte, Jackson Smith and David Villacorta took the stage to share their ideas for the coming school year.
The presidential portion of the debate began with a series of questions.
Q: “If you could implement one major policy change at Lipscomb what would it be?
A: Presidential candidate Julia Allen said she would change the way that tuition works.
“I would like to see fixed tuition — for Lipscomb students to be able to stay for all four years,” Allen said.
A: Presidential candidate Margaret Rox said she would also like to see a tuition lock for current students.
“If we can’t have a tuition lock, I would at least like to see people’s scholarship increase with the tuition,” Rox said.
While tuition increases each each, Rox said that scholarships don’t. She said that it would be more fair for scholarships to follow the same trend as rising tuition.
A: Presidential candidate Jordan Beale said she is passionate about Lipscomb’s community, and she said she believes housing is a big part of the community.
“I’d really like to see some greater opportunities for upperclassmen here on campus — maybe have more open dorm hours, a little bit more autonomy on those choices, a little bit more openness to moving off campus,” Beale said.
Q: “What do you bring to Student Government that is unique to who you are?”
A: Allen said she is an outgoing and outspoken hard worker. She said she believes her job in Student Life has given her the opportunity for a great relationship with administration. In addition to that, she said that her diversity is what sets her apart.
“One of the things that I have really tried to do since my freshman year is just expand my friend groups,” Allen said. “I love to meet new people.”
A: Rox is one of two female mechanical engineering majors in her class, and she said that is one factor that makes her a strong candidate.
“I think that [major] sets me apart, because I’m great at thinking logically, I’m really great at problem-solving [and] I’m not easily caught up by my emotions, so it’s really served me well in SGA,” Rox said.
Rox also said that because she is not part of a social club, she has more of an overall look at the greater scheme of things.
A: Beale said that what sets her apart is her honesty.
“God blessed and sometimes cursed me with the gift of honesty, and a huge role of the SGA President is having discernment in situations and be honest at times that it may not be so easy,” Beale said.
Beale said that in SGA’s constitution it states that the president has the power to approve policies, call meetings and exercise veto. She said she believes the president needs honesty to lead the student body.
Q: “Lipscomb has a somewhat low participation rate at events. What do you think you could do or SGA could do to change this?”
A: Allen said she is passionate about events and the change would start with athletics.
“Whether it’s tailgating before athletic events, or collaborating with the SAC to increase participation at those events and making it kind of a bigger deal to boost Lipscomb’s spirit, in return, I think that could kind of trickle out into other things, such as productions and other campus events,” Allen said.
Allen said that communication is another important factor that will drive this change.
A: Rox said that the lack of participation is due to the impact the upperclassmen have on the rest of the study body.
“I stopped going to those [events] because I realized the upperclassmen thought they were lame, so we [need to] get the upperclassmen back into thinking those events are cool,” Rox said.
Rox said incentives like free T-shirts or food can help to boost participation rates.
A: Beale said that one of the greatest ways to get students involved is to let them know they are being heard.
She said she would like to implement short, weekly surveys. She said this would give students a voice about events in particular.
“What I would love to see is events where athletes are attending, Greek life is attending, campus rec is attending, everyone is attending, so it’s not just reaching a certain group,” Beale said.
Beale said that bigger, all-inclusive events will make for a greater community on campus.
Each presidential candidate has written an Open Letter to the student body. Beale’s can be viewed here, Rox’s can be viewed here and Allen’s can be viewed here.
Elections will be held on Tuesday in Bennett Campus Center. Students will be able to vote for executive positions and senators from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Runoffs will be held Thursday.
Students will only be able to vote for the senators in their class. Five senators are chosen for each class. Elections for Senator-at-large will be held Tuesday, April 14. For a complete list of who is running in this year’s election, click here.
Photo gallery by Erin Turner