The 2013 Student Body Elections Debate and Reception was held Feb. 18 in the Marshall Student Center Oval Theater. Moderated by current student body president Brian Goff, the debate served as an arena over current and future campus policies between the Lockwood/Agosto and Warmke/Sandoval candidate tickets.

The debate was organized into three segments: vice presidential debate, presidential debate and open-floor Q-and-A session with both tickets. Debate topics were further split into “quiz” style questions, format and policy questions and individually tailored questions.

The first campaign debate of the 2013 Student Body Elections was held Feb. 13 in the Marshall Student Center Beef ‘O’ Brady’s. The debate was moderated and broadcast on-air by Bulls Radio.

Presidential candidates Taylor Lockwood and William Warmke, both studying political science, shared their opinions on USF’s big issues, taking stances on topics like student involvement, voter turnout, student parking and student organizations.

The USF Student Government senate meeting took place on Tuesday, led by Jeff Gao, senate president. He confirmed Matthew Milton as the new director of SAFE Team after the usual pledge of allegiance and roll call.

The legislative branch of Student Government elected the Senate president and chairs for six committees for the 53rd term on April 17.

After a near four hour meeting, mechanical engineering senior Jeff Gao was elected Senate President.

According to Student Government’s website, the Senate president serves as the head of the legislative branch and is responsible for overseeing all operations and components of the Senate. The president’s duties include representing the Senate before all others, overseeing and managing all senators and acting as chair for all Senate meetings.

Political science major Adam Aldridge and public health major Abdool Aziz were also on the ticket for Senate President.

Each nominee was given five minutes to present themselves and explain their qualifications for the position and what their goals would be if they were elected.

After the presentations, the student Senate asked the nominees questions before requiring them to leave the room. Then, students were able to endorse a nominee if they chose, explaining why the chosen nominee should receive the support of others.

The election ended with two votes for Aldridge, seven for Aziz and 35 for Gao.

Gao hopes to reach out to students and organizations, create an educational workshop series for senators and live-stream senate meetings, which are generally held every Tuesday at 6 p.m.

The six elected positions:

President Pro-Tempore: Scott Sandoval

Chair of the Committee on Rules: Lindsay Ruskan

Chair of Committee on Appropriations: Ali Antar

Char of Judiciary Ethics Committee:  Shyam Patel

Chair of Committee on Special Funding: Adam Aldridge

Chair of Committee on University and Governmental Affairs: Jean Cocco

The chairs and Senate president will take office May 7.

Feb. 23 last night in the Marshall Student Center Oval Theater the candidates squared off for the second Student Government presidential debate.

 If you attended the previous debate at Beef ‘O’ Brady’s, you might have experienced some déjà vu.  The moderator provided open-ended questions, which gave no room for the candidates to differentiate.  The debate became a conversation between candidates with “Groundhog Day”-like responses. 

Questions were asked, generally, to three candidates at a time, in which they were given one minute to respond.  In addition, the moderator told candidates when they had 10 seconds remaining. 

The six student body presidential candidates faced off during their second, and final, debate on Feb. 22, in the Marshall Student Center Oval Theater. This time, questions were more focused and rebuttals were allowed.
 
Although scheduled for 6 p.m. the debate was stalled until 6:32 p.m. due to a missing candidate. Assured that he would arrive soon, the five present candidates began their introductions.
 
Christopher Cano hurried in at 6:38 p.m., just in time to give his.

“I’m running to be your president,” Cano said, lifting up his foot to reveal his deteriorating shoe, “literally.”
 
After the debate, Cano said he was meeting with student organizations. “I worked til the last possible minute. Time is the one resource we cannot get more of.”
 
Much of the night was spent reiterating and clarifying stands and ideas mentioned during the first debate.
 
Sarah Pollei again put an emphasis on sustainability, Brian Goff on being there for the students, Christina Hughes on education, Alan Ethington on his advocacy for an on campus football stadium, Cano on his experience in state government and Omar Rodriguez on transparency and traditions.