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Student Senate Debate

Ryan McGeeney/KANSAN Adam Wood, Lawrence senior, presidential candidate with Students of Liberty, organized a Student Senate debate Friday afternoon in Alderson Auditorium. Presidential and vice presidential candidates from the United Students and Envision coalitions also participated in the debate, which Wood organized after the original Student Senate debate, scheduled for April 6, was cancelled due to securit concerns.

Adam Wood, Lawrence senior and Students of Liberty presidential candidate for Student Senate, took Student Senate debates into his own hands Friday afternoon.

A debate scheduled earlier for the week was cancelled, so Wood decided to put together a debate for Senate himself.

"At the time it didn't look like anything was going to happen," Wood said. "So I just said 'No, there is going to be a debate and I'm just going to put it together.’"

Students of Liberty, United Students and Envision participated in the debate. Wood said he invited presidential candidate Tutu Lee, but he was unable to attend.

Wood said the debate was an important part of the Student Senate elections.

"If you don't have a debate then there will be less voter turnout because no one has any clue what they're voting for," Wood said. "It's just a big poster and button fest, it's not really about ideas, it's just about who can spend the most money on materials."

Campaign funding

During the debate, Wood said the Students of Liberty campaign raised and spent about $700.

"Which is a lot more than I thought we'd ever do," Wood said. "Last year we ran a campaign on $70."

Wood said half the money came from fundraisers and the other half was donations.

JJ Siler, Overland Park junior and Envision presidential candidate, said Envision had spent about $2,000 on its campaign.

Silver said the some of the money came from fundraising involving both alumni from his fraternity and Student Senate. He said the coalition also raised money at social events promoting Student Senate.

"We were very lucky to find a lot of people who are willing to support us in our endeavours," Siler said. "I believe that our goals are very much in line with those of students and you're supposed to represent those students."

The funds went to hand-made banners, informational flyers and buttons in different languages.

Siler said he thought these were the basic methods to get more people involved in Student Senate.

May Davis, Clay Center junior and vice presidential candidate for United Students, estimated United Students spent about $3,000 on its campaign.

Mason Heilman, Lawrence junior and United Students presidential candidate, said the money came from family, friends and people who had helped them in the past. Davis said additional revenue was acquired through advertising for businesses while promoting their coalition.

Economic issues

Heilman said keeping cost for students down was a priority.

"One of our biggest responsibilities as Student Senate is making sure that we are not overstepping our bounds in terms of asking for money," Heilman said. "I think you can see that through our platform with common sense, low cost issues."

Alex Porte, Great Falls, Va., junior and Envision vice president candidate, said the way to respond to the economic crisis was to wait a couple of months.

"I think that because this crisis essentially happened in a four- to five-month period, to project for an entire year would be extremely short-sighted of us," Porte said. "However, I think the zero percent fee increase that was mandated by the Board of Regents and the chancellor is something that something we seriously need to look at keeping for another year."

Porte said keeping the same amount of services on campus was more important than an increase in fees.

Wood agreed there shouldn't be an increase in fees, but wanted to take it a step further by putting money back in students’ pockets. He said it would come from fees that would be expiring this year, such as the boathouse fee. He also said it only made sense to lower taxes during a recession.

"Student government is a government and student fees are taxes," Wood said.

There will be another debate at 1:30 p.m. Monday in the news studio of the Dole Human Development Center.