The Student Center ballroom filled with SGA candidate supporters, neon-colored campaign shirts spouting the names of the 11 candidates Monday night.
SGA President Jacob Watkins served as the spokesperson for the debate. The major candidate positions included in the debate were president, vice president and treasurer. Miss Auburn candidates were invited to briefly explain their platforms.
Lauren Ketron, senior in English, began with her platform labeled "Students for Students" and emphasized that college students are a rarity in the world and we need to help those who are among the 99 percent that are not able to get a college education.
"One percent of the world has a college education," Ketron said. "All we need is student body support."
Alisha Walker, junior in international business, explained her platform's focus on a crisis relief fund that will financially aid a student in need during times of crisis. Walker also wants to supplement her crisis relief fund with educating students on how to save money during tough economic times.
Alysha Kambeyanda, senior in industrial design, holds ballot position No. 3. Kambeyanda's platform centers on the World Food Program.
"(It is) time for students to get more involved on a more individual level," Kambeyanda said. Kambeyana's slogan is "Zap Hunger Away."
Katie Parrish, junior in nursing, campaigns for goals of leadership for campus.
"Being a leader is standing up for the people you care about," Parrish said. "These leaders on campus will be known as mentors and will aid our academic advisors by answering the more basic questions of advisement, opening up the schedules of our busy professional advisers."
Kristi MeGahee, junior in psychology, spoke last and voiced her support of the Lima Foxtrot Programs of the Lakeshore Foundation in Birmingham, which aids injured war veterans. MeGahee's twin sister, who serves in the U.S. military, sparked this interest in the Lima Foxtrot Program.
Next, the sole candidate for treasurer, Spencer Moore, senior in political science, gave a brief presentation of his goals. Moore's main goal is to form a system for students to track their money once it is paid to the University.
The debate officially began with the vice presidential candidates Ashley Nichols, senior in political science, and Brandon Gillespie, senior in international business. They were presented with four debate questions.
One candidate was chosen to respond with a primary answer for two minutes, and then the other candidate had the option to respond with a secondary answer for one minute.
The questions covered implementation new ideas in the coming year, feelings about asserting the role of being vice president, response to budget cuts and falling state funding and thoughts on how the SGA Cabinet and Senate should work together to improve SGA.
With respect to the question, "How do you see the role of vice president in SGA, and how will you use that role throughout campus?" both candidates responded similarly.
Gillespie responded first and spoke of the importance of the president and vice president working together with their platform points, in order to increase the potential for change.
Nichols agreed, saying the vice president and president must work together and listen to the students because they serve as a liaison between students and the administrators.
With respect to the budget cuts, Nichols suggested the University keep a substantial budget fund for future projects working through budget and finance committees.
Nichols hopes that a budget fund will decrease future tuition costs and help maintain student affordability.
Gillespie sounded confident when he said, "I think that everything will be fine in our future."
The final debate among the presidential candidates brought a new set of questions to the stage.
The questions to the presidential candidates included topics about relations between the SGA president and the Board of Trustees and major administrators, current problems facing Auburn and problem management, platform influence on students, the importance of experience in leading SGA, plans to expand on the progress of the current SGA officers and SGA relations with Alabama's Legislature, who controls the budget of the organization.
The three presidential candidates are Brad Cink, junior in industrial engineering, Kurt Sasser, junior in human resource management, and Daniel McCarty, senior in international business.
Sasser had the primary response to the question, "What do you feel is the greatest problem facing Auburn now?"
"We have the largest budget deficit of our history," Sasser said. "We had 40 percent more money contributed from the State Senate in 2007 than we do now, only three years later."
All candidates agreed that the greatest problem facing Auburn is tuition increase.
Cink said Auburn has kept a stable tuition while other universities raise their tuition annually and that now is the time has come when Auburn has to make a large jump in tuition cost.
McCarty, in response to a question of the importance of experience in leading SGA, said, "SGA president is its own entity. It is like nothing else."
McCarty believes the best way to prepare is to gain relations with administrators.
"In the past years, several gains have been made with our relationship with Alabama's Legislature," Watkins said. "How do we keep those relations, and what do we do about budget cuts?" .
McCarty said we need to have people in Montgomery all the time to stay on top of the relations with the state Legislature.
Cink thinks our state funding is being reduced no matter what.
We need to move to electronic books which will take a semester cost from $500 to about $25, Cink said.
Sasser said we should hold the option to have either an electronic book or a hard copy of the book because it is difficult for some students to read from their computer screens. Sasser also said he agrees with McCarty about having Auburn officials in Montgomery to lobby for tuition budget.
Closing remarks from each candidate about presidential platforms ended the 2010 SGA candidate debate.
Voting begins Thursday, Feb. 18, from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. under the Campus Life tab on AUAccess. For more information and official platforms of each candidate visit www.auburn.edu/sga/Programs/Elections/_SpringElections.
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