Listen to the full debate on SoundCloud here.
The 2014 ASCSU Presidential candidates engaged in a spirited debate about the campaigns, platforms and the future of Colorado State as they gathered together on Friday April 4.
The four presidential candidates — Deep Badhesha, Chelsey Green, Samantha Guinn and Alex Corona — sat down with Collegian Reporter Zack Burley to discuss questions and topics that had not yet been asked or made clear following the public debate on Wednesday, April 2.
Early on, Deep Badhesha raised a question to Samantha Guinn about her campaign platform.
“You have about 15 different platforms on your pamphlet, about 13 of them are being done or have been done, most of your different things are a continuation of progression of what’s already been happening, you talked about new things you wanted to add to ASCSU. Can you expand on that?” Badhesha asked the Guinn campaign.
“It’s not 13, its actually six,” Guinn responded. “Yes, I do mention ‘continue’ on there three times and the reasoning behind that is we’ve seen how successful certain things are going this year.”
Corona explained what policies he supports and fleshed out some specifics of his platform.
“My main initiative that I’ve personally worked on is more club involvement,” Corona said. “I’d like to provide more funding for clubs, that’s where it starts.”
Other candidates also discussed platform specifics. Green elaborated on the framework she planned to implement for her RamCash return initiative
“If you don’t use a meal swipe, you’d be able to get some of that RamCash back,” Green said. “If ASCSU and the Senators from RHA (Residence Hall Association) pair together, that we could have a large enough student voice to really get in front of Housing and Dining and say ‘This is an issue that students see,’ and come up with some kind of compromise.”
During Wednesday’s debate, Guinn pointed out concerns by the Women and Gender Advocacy Center in regards to Badhesha’s Undie Run initiative. In Friday’s debate, Guinn pointed out the WGAC’s concern for an an increased risk of sexual assaults around the event.
“They don’t like it, not simply because of the organization, just because of the openings for sexual assault that occur because of it, not necessarily during the actual Undie Run, but typically in the after parties afterwards,” Guinn said.
On the subject of the Undie Run, Badhesha commented on the inevitability of the event.
“It’s going to happen no matter what, it’s whether we want it to be organized and properly run or not,” he said. “I think that whole sexual assault piece is a definite thing, the WGAC last year did have Team Consent writing consent on — they had underwear parties where they write consent on like underwear — and I feel like that risk does exist there.”
Other topics covered included budget transparency so students could better see where their money is being spent (starting at 40:12), fixing ASCSU to function more effectively (starting at 6:00), the differing management styles of the candidates (starting at 54:40), as well as how the candidates might continue to serve the CSU community if they do not get elected president (starting at 58:53).
The link to the debate can be found at https://soundcloud.com/zburley/ascsu-presidential-debate-2014.
Voting begins Monday April 7 and ends Wednesday April 9. Students can vote by logging on to their RamWeb accounts using their eIDs.
Collegian Reporter Zack Burley can be reached at news@collegian.com.
