Despite the possibility of a nullified election, three of the five student body presidential candidates were present Thursday at a dinner debate organized by resident mentors of the First Year College.
Will Langley, Will Quick and Cody Williams attended the dinner debate, the second of its kind in as many years, entertaining questions posed by moderator and Chief Justice candidate Lock Whiteside III.
“This is the second year we’ve done a political discussion,” Matthew Rust, adviser to the FYC, said. “A lot of it is to let freshman know about the elections.”
Rust said recent conflict between administration and Student Government’s Elections Commission that has the validity of next week’s election at stake did not take away from the objective of Thursday’s debate.
“We’re still able to accomplish our goal of making students more knowledgeable about the election,” Rust said.
According to Eric Hsu, a FYC freshman, the debate didn’t separate any one candidate from the field.
“I thought [the debate] was pretty good — they covered most of the general issues of concerns for students,” Hsu said. “Everyone seemed basically the same, they didn’t really display their uniqueness.”
“All you know leaving is that they are all really nice guys.”
Ryan Graczkowski, a sophomore in FYC, said he left the debate with an opposing impression.
“They all sounded like they were separate, unique entities,” Graczkowski said.
Graczkowski and Noel Keck and Stephanie Millard, both freshman in FYC, said the debate didn’t have a clear cut winner, but they did come away with their own favorites — Graczkowski for Langley and Keck and Millard for Quick.
Langley’s answers revolved around a philosophy that Student Government and administration don’t necessarily need to see eye-to-eye.
“I think it’s okay not to have a love-love relationship with administration all the time,” Langley, a junior in tourism and political science, said.
Quick, a junior in biomedical engineering, focused on his contributions on campus, specifically as a student voice on the chancellor-appointed Football Task Force, a group responsible for proposing restrictions to current tailgating procedures at home football games.
“Just be good, be nice and don’t shoot anybody,” Quick told the group of students gathered in the Bragaw Activity Room.
Williams, a senior in agricultural business management, pointed to his current role as president of the Inter-Residence Council and his distance from Student Government as refreshing qualities for the student body present position.
“I wasn’t a part of Student Government this year, I never was,” Williams said.
Rust said the event, despite a low turnout of about thirty students, was executed to plan.
“It went pretty well. I would have liked to have a full room, but the candidates did a good job expressing their views clearly,” he said.
“I’m glad students had the opportunity to ask the candidates questions.”