Adam Brasher, Drake Pooley and Jesse Westerhouse will face off in the SGA debate tonight, Feb. 8, at 7 p.m. in the Student Center ballroom. Tweet questions to the candidates using #SGAdebate.
Adam Brasher
Adam Brasher, junior in organismal biology, decided to run for SGA president last year when three major candidates ran unopposed.
"That’s not the way it should be," Brasher said. "The Spades, they can choose who they want to be on there, but I don’t think they should run unopposed. I think it’s important for the system to have as many people running as possible. To get lots of ideas out there and to keep the system honest."
Brasher is finishing his first year as a photographer for the SGA cabinet, and he's a member of Committee of 19 and Society for Conservation Biology.
"I think having a variety of experiences in different leadership roles and being put in different situations will help a lot if I’m president," Brasher said.
There's room to improve SGA's approachability and accessibility, Brasher said.
"You have to be in SGA to get in SGA," Brasher said. "You have to get in as a freshman and go through all the steps they want you to in order to get in. I don’t think it’s really accessible to the common student, which makes it not representative of the student body as a whole."
Diversity is essential to Brasher's campaign as well. He wants to create a new position: director of diversity.
"I know a lot of people see SGA as the 'WSO,' or the White Student Organization," Brasher said. "The makeup of SGA is very homogenous. I think making it more accessible, more open and just educating people about how they can get involved will help a lot.'
If he is elected, Brasher said he would do everything in his power to make Auburn a more sustainable university.
"We paved over an endangered habitat to build the osteopathic building," Brasher said. "There are buildings on campus that leave their lights on all the time, people playing video games on the new video board that uses God knows how much energy."
Student input is important to Brasher's campaign too.
Brasher was shocked last year when students became excited about the dining referendum. He said students should always be involved in campus decisions.
"I don’t think it should be a special occasion when the administration listens to us," Brasher said.
Winning is not the point of this campaign, Brasher said, but it would be nice.
"If I win, I win," Brasher said. "If I lose, I lose. It's about the message."
Drake Pooley
Drake Pooley, senior, is triple majoring. He's working to earn degrees in finance, economics and international business-Chinese.
He decided to learn Chinese because his grandmother knew six languages, but never got around to studying learning that one. Also, he's already fluent in Spanish.
Pooley currently juggles his classes with his three SGA positions. He serves as assistant vice president of Student Affairs, a senator for the College of Business and the chairman of the Diversity and Multicultural Affairs Committee.
He attributes his ability to multitask to capable coworkers and preparing projects in advance.
"I'm very much a prepper," Pooley said.
If he is elected, Pooley said he wants to improve the student experience for everyone, not just SGA members and their friends.
"I feel like when some people think about what SGA can do, they say, 'What programs or initiatives can we do that will attract more attention to SGA?' I believe we're here to enhance everyone's time at Auburn," Pooley said.
Pooley wants to focus on student safety, particularly bringing Uber back to Auburn.
It would promote safe habits and help students get home safely, Pooley said, but it would also provide jobs for students.
Uber would also be an invaluable resource for international students, Pooley said.
"If they don't live close to campus and they don't drive, they're spending hundreds of dollars a month on taxis," Pooley said. "It's incredible that we don't have this cheap, efficient transportation system in Auburn."
In addition to bringing Uber back, Pooley wants to expand the ways the University uses its own technology. Innovation is essential to his campaign.
The College of Business' Radio Frequency Identification Lab specializes in the implementation of radio frequency identification technology in retail, supply chain and manufacturing settings. Numerous large corporations work with the lab.
Pooley wants to find inventive ways to utilize that technology on campus. Specifically, he wants to create a virtual Tiger Card. That way, Pooley said, students can use them even if they forget them at home.
"We have companies like Amazon and Walmart working with that lab," Pooley said. "So, why can't we use our own resources to benefit campus?"
Jesse Westerhouse
Jesse Westerhouse, junior in finance, was involved in some of the largest SGA initiatives in recent memory — Tiger Scheduler, the Auburn Memorial project and the Mental Health Task Force.
He believes his student government experience, along with his fraternity membership and service as a Plainsman, has prepared him for SGA presidency.
"They've given me different perspectives about so many parts of campus," Westerhouse said.
SGA is already a great organization, Westerhouse said, but members could work to improve student perception.
"People either think we're pretentious or we don't do anything," Westerhouse said. "We need to show we're everyday students, and we just want to serve this campus."
Westerhouse also wants to work on diversity in SGA.
"SGA, while it's an awesome organization in so many ways, isn't always representative of the student body," Westerhouse said. "I think it's extremely important so that when we talk to administrators, we can have full confidence that we are completely representative of students."
If he is elected, Westerhouse wants to work with department heads to ensure students know who is teaching each class while they register.
"When students are registering for classes they shouldn't have to worry, 'Who the heck is my teacher going to be?' There are so many different teaching styles," Westerhouse said. "The teacher affects the class almost as much as the material does."
He also wants to renovate the old Student Activities Center to create an auditorium-style venue for organizations to host events.
Currently, Westerhouse said, most organizations rely on the Student Center Ballroom or Auburn Arena. Those venues seat up to 650 people and 9,121 people, respectively.
The Student Activities Center would provide a middle ground, with 1,200-1,500 seats.
"It would save student organizations so much money," Westerhouse said.
Westerhouse also wants to work with the City Council to bring Uber back to Auburn.
"Students who live off campus either have to pay $30 for a taxi, drive drunk or walk," Westerhouse said. "With Uber, you can pay $6 or $8 and you're home."
In addition to these new ideas, Westerhouse wants to finish the projects he's started.
"I want to further the Auburn Memorial project," Westerhouse said. "And this mental health beast is not going away. This Task Force has been awesome, and there will be some really great proposals, but the stigma is still attached to it."
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