Media panel to question Student Association candidate
The Student Association will host a candidate debate at 7 tonight in Hendricks Chapel.
A panel of Syracuse University student media representatives will pose questions to sole presidential candidate Larry Seivert and comptroller candidates Na’Tasha Webb-Prather and Lily Mei. Assembly member candidates will also have a chance to speak.
Voting for SA elections begins Monday and runs through Nov. 13 at midnight. Seivert, a junior in the Martin J. Whitman School of Management, is the only declared presidential candidate. In last year’s election, he ran as a write-in candidate and lost to current president Marlene Goldenberg.
Alec Sim, chair of the board of elections and membership, must check the questions before the debate.
‘It’s always important for the voters to understand what they’re voting for, and who they’re voting for,’ Sim said. ‘Especially when there’s more than one candidate. We can’t force people to be interested, but we can make sure they’re as involved as possible in the process.’
In an effort to draw more of the student body to the SA election process, voting was switched last year from paper ballot form to an online MySlice page. Sim, a junior economics, finance and music history major, said more than 2,000 students voted in last year’s election.
SA’s policy states that for approval of an election, at least 10 percent of SU’s full-time undergraduate student body must vote. If voting doesn’t hit that number by midnight Oct. 13, the election period will be extended until midnight Oct. 14.
If 10 percent of undergraduates don’t vote by Oct. 14 at midnight, SA must void the numbers and reschedule the entire election.
Sim said he hopes the student body will recognize the importance of voting but that he can’t force interest.
‘Some students just don’t care,’ he said. ‘They feel that this doesn’t affect them. That’s the leadership of the body that determines how your student fee is spent. I don’t understand why people would not be involved, except that they don’t understand the implications of not choosing their representations.’
Goldenberg, SA’s current president, said the student body deserves to know the plans of SA’s elected leaders.
‘I think it brings legitimacy to the whole process and allows people to get to know the candidates,’ she said. ‘It also allows candidates to get a better idea for what students want. It’s a nice reality check.’
Goldenberg said she clearly remembers her experience at last year’s debate. It was held at the same time as a Syracuse basketball game, and only 20 students attended.
‘It’s absolutely nerve-racking, because you don’t know what the question is going to be,’ she said. ‘But people deserve to know what you stand for and what you want to do.’
Published on November 4, 2008 at 12:00 pm
