App State’s Student Government Association held a debate Tuesday with the presidential and vice presidential candidates — junior political science major Elizabeth Ford with running mate sophomore international business major Yauri Hatcher, and sophomore nursing major Jordan Cisneros with running mate sophomore risk management and insurance major Marquetta Bouldrick.
The moderator was Boone Mayor Dalton George. He asked a series of questions about how the candidates would help the student body, what they would do to connect with the community and about their leadership styles.
The candidates were first asked about what they want to achieve if elected and how they will hold those promises. Ford and Hatcher said their campaign is based on helping transfer students adjust when entering App State and further pushing mental health resources.
A topic Ford highlighted was App State’s SGA helping clubs and organizations. She said in order to get more engagement and to help students find their groups, SGA could help clubs by advocating for them, assisting fundraising and helping with marketing.
“I think it’s really important that, you know, student government takes on helping fundraising through different committee members, our committees, such as campus resources to help out with Campus Activities and Club Hub to get different clubs started,” Ford said.
Cisneros and Bouldrick said they interpreted the question as how they will measure their success. They wish to achieve in advocating for the student body’s needs, like class cancellations due to weather being announced further in advance.
“How we would understand success within the student body is if we’re going back out into there and listening to the communities that we’re making changes to,” Cisneros said.
He said he will be held to his promises because many of the changes he is advocating for will be felt instantaneously.
The candidates were asked about how they would help the student body, whether it involves clubs or all students’ overall experience at App State.
Ford and Hatcher said they often see students want to be involved, but the students don’t know what’s going on around campus. Hatcher explained that other schools have a student page connected to their university website — for App State, this would be in ASULearn — where students can see upcoming events.
She said she knows students don’t often check emails for updates, and every club has its own Instagram, so a student page would be a simple way for students to receive updates and be involved.
Cisneros and Bouldrick said to help student engagement, they would sit in on club meetings and invite organizations to SGA meetings to hear what they need from student government. Bouldrick also proposed the idea of having the SGA Instagram account become the sole one for clubs to avoid students having to search for information.
Both tickets mentioned mental health services and what they would do to make resources more accessible for students.
After George asked general questions, the Q&A forum was opened to students and community members attending the event.
Senior public relations major and SGA vice president Courtney Castellow asked how the candidates planned to balance their personal responsibilities with SGA leadership.
Cisneros and Bouldrick explained that they planned to make SGA leadership their top priority if elected. Bouldrick said that her only other responsibility on campus is with AppalCorps, and her schedule is already clear for the next two semesters to fully commit to SGA.
Ford and Hatcher shared the same sentiment and emphasized a reliance on their friends and SGA team members as a support system.
“I have the most supportive team and village behind me, and they all know this is my top priority,” Ford said.
The candidates were also asked to say something positive about the opposing side. Cisneros and Jordan described Ford and Hatcher as having positive energy and a strong work ethic. Ford and Hatcher described Cisneros and Jordan as good communicators with driven and funny personalities. The candidates used this time to explain that, despite being on opposing sides, they were all in this race together.
Voting for student body president and vice president can be found on Engage. The voting period will end Friday at noon.
Correction: A previous version of this article incorrectly attributed a quote made by Hatcher to Ford. This has since been corrected. Additionally, the captions of this story have been updated to accurately reflect the subjects in the photos.
