SGA Debate

On Wednesday, Nov. 1, three tickets for 2018 Student Government Association President—Dakota Van Deursen and Marianna Fleming, Melanie Caba and Jose Angeles, and Lucas Gallo and Rami Kammourh—sat down to debate. Current SGA Secretary Parker Petroff-Rims and Honor Board Chair Olivia Schreiber served as the moderators for the evening event. This is Schreiber’s second year moderating.

Before the debate began, there was a moment of silence held for Darren Drake, a Stevens graduate student who passed during the NYC terror attack the day before.

Schreiber then proceeded to explain the rules and format of the debate, starting with the speaking order, where the questions came from, and the time limit imposed on each ticket to respond to any given question. The candidates were seated in speaking order, and the prepared questions were collected from the Senate, with a few more added from Olivia. After 50 minutes, the debate would switch over to audience questions. For every question asked, each group would have two minutes to respond, and after each group responded, a rebuttal period would be opened for any group to respond again.

The presidential candidates and their running mates were then introduced one by one with warm support from the audience. The fact that all of them are well-accomplished and established student leaders increased the audience’s anticipation to hear their responses to questions.

Petroff-Rims started the debate by reading the first question, specifically for the presidential candidates: “In your opinion, what is the most important thing to address? And if elected, what is your plan to combat this issue?”

Van Deursen was the first to respond and named three main goals: working with the co-op office, working with media organizations, and improving SGA-student relations by revamping the PR committee of the SGA. He emphasized that media organizations have been an “untapped” channel for the SGA to communicate better with Stevens students.

Caba stated that her biggest goal would be to “help students understand the question, ‘What is the SGA?'” She spoke of improving the relationship between the SGA and the student body as well as her purpose, which is to make students consider the SGA a community in which everyone works together to make a positive change, rather than a leadership hierarchy.

Gallo cited “students and their connection to the university” as the biggest problem he would address if elected President. He explained several issues in the classroom that inhibit the student learning experience and stressed the need to have student projects and student ability better showcased on campus, from seniors contributing to construction on campus as their design projects to visual arts student projects being displayed in more than a single hallway.

At this point, Caba pointed out that the candidates did not yet make their opening statements as planned in the night’s agenda, to which Schreiber assured would occur immediately following the rebuttal.

Caba was the first to speak this time. She explained that when she asked students what they wanted to change about the SGA, students could not think of questions to ask because they “didn’t know the full capacity of what the SGA can do.”

Van Deursen agreed with Caba and added that transparency between the SGA and students was critical. He brought up his idea to reboot the PR committee within the SGA in order to improve all lines of communication between the SGA and students.

Gallo also agreed with both Caba and Van Deursen, mentioning his time as Head of the PR committee a little over a year ago and the initiatives he started back then. He stressed the need for senators to “go out and talk about the problems we are having,” and “not only be senators on Sundays but senators throughout the week.”

The candidates then gave their “opening statements,” starting with Van Deursen and Fleming, and then going down the row. After everyone’s opening statements, several more questions were asked before questions were opened to the audience. The debate ended after more than two hours of questions.

If you missed the debate or are interested in hearing each candidate’s response to more questions asked, you can watch the debate online, filmed by SITTV at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuAtUlQr-B8. Students can vote for their next SGA President at www.stevens.edu/vote until Wednesday, Nov. 8 at 9 p.m.