On Wednesday evening, Stevens students gathered in EAS 222 for the Student Government Association Presidential Debate, the first debate between opposing SGA presidential tickets since the fall semester of 2012. In the audience were over 60 students, all hoping to learn how each ticket plans to represent the interests of the student body if elected.
At a table in the front of the room sat the two presidential candidates, both accompanied by their running mates. On one side of the table were Matthew Hunt, the current SGA President, and Jessica Smith, the current SGA Secretary. On the other side sat Vincent Raimondi, the current SGA Vice President, and Charles Shotmeyer, former SGA Secretary. Shane Arlington, President of Gear and Triangle Honor Society, served as the moderator. After opening the debate, Arlington allowed the candidates a chance to introduce themselves and make their opening remarks.
Hunt and Smith introduced themselves and gave an overview of their platform. Hunt thanked the audience for taking their time to come to the debate and said that there has been much improvement in the SGA during his presidency, specifically the restructuring of the Senate in order to focus more on campus matters, and that him and Smith would continue to encourage positive change.
Raimondi began his opening remarks by saying that it is the voice of the students that matters most, and that he would work towards reversing some of the negative changes that have come about in the past year, mentioning the removal of free co-op classes and the lowering of the student activity fee.
After opening remarks, the candidates answered a number of questions posed by the moderator. One of the first questions asked was what the candidates believed to be the ideal role of the SGA. Raimondi was first to reply, saying that an ideal SGA is one where students can come to for solutions. “We want the SGA to be an organization where anyone can come to with anything,” said Raimondi. “We want people to have a say in how our school is shaped, especially with things like the ten year plan.”
Hunt had a similar view, saying “The ideal SGA is one that is respected by the students and the administration… If a student respects the SGA in that they know about it and they understand it, they’ll know they have a voice in the direction of our school.” The candidates proceeded to answer several questions about how the SGA should conduct itself and its relationship to the student body.
Members of the audience were also allowed to ask questions. One student posed a question to Raimondi about Boken, a festival he has promised to bring back if elected, asking what he would do if it the student body decided it would like to see SGA resources be used elsewhere. “If people don’t want Boken, we won’t have Boken,” said Raimondi. “But I’ve talked to a lot of people and it seems that’s what people want.” Hunt responded, “I want to take a step back and see we’ve got this lump sum of money to do whatever we want with… I want to take a step back and see what the students want to do.”
When giving closing remarks, both candidates shared not just how they want to improve the SGA, but why they want to be cabinet members to begin with. “We want to help shape Stevens; we want to give Stevens as much as it’s given us,” said Raimondi.
“It’s like when you graduate from high school and you look back and you wish you did this, this, and this… If I’m elected, I have this unique opportunity to go back and really optimize what we did as a Cabinet, as a Senate, and as an SGA as a whole,” said Hunt.
Voting is open for all undergraduate students, and can be done by visiting www.stevens.edu/vote. Voting will close at 11:59 p.m. on Saturday, November 7.
