As the SGA executive candidates came together for the second and final debate of election week, the two parties clashed over their different visions to transform the body into a more transparent and effective organization.
About 50 students attended the debate the Student Government Association hosted in Knight Hall last night. While the For and Go parties’ four executive board candidates often expressed very similar goals – such as increasing collaboration with student groups, reforming the student group funding process and creating new connections between students and alumni – they proposed starkly different approaches for tackling these issues.
Members of the Go Party, led by sophomore environmental science and policy major Samantha Zwerling, often pointed to their proposal to create 30 non-elected SGA positions, each of which would be responsible for specialized initiatives to improve the student experience. However, junior government and politics and psychology major Jamil Scott led the For Party – all four of which’s executive board candidates are in this year’s SGA – in promoting initiatives they had already begun in their current positions.
Student attendees and members of the SGA elections board, which moderated the event, questioned the candidates on their platforms. Go Party members were asked whether expanding the organization’s size would translate into a more effective body. Zwerling said it was the best model for keeping students involved in the organization.
“Creating those positions does not add bureaucracy. It adds specialization and ownership,” Zwerling said. “Right now, for members, being in SGA takes a lot of their time. Having a specialized role and also being able to do different things is very important.”
Scott, however, questioned whether adding more positions would improve retention within the body.
“Just giving someone a title doesn’t give them the commitment to stay in the organization,” Scott said.
The elections board members also asked whether the For Party would be able to bring in fresh ideas and reform the body if all four executive candidates are current members of the organization. Scott pointed to their leadership roles in various other university organizations, such as her own presidency of the Black Honors Caucus.
“We aren’t just SGA,” Scott said. “We represent a large number of perspectives, and we bring them together, and that’s how we make the changes.”
However, Zwerling noted members of her party spoke to about 1,000 students over the past four days of campaigning and almost all of them had very little knowledge of the SGA. She said this spoke to a need to change how the SGA is run.
“Students don’t know what the SGA is doing,” Zwerling said. “So you’re talking about bringing accountability to the SGA, why hasn’t it already been done? Why wait until you’re running again than when you can actually make that change?”
Zwerling also addressed a question from an audience member as to why she stepped down as MaryPIRG chapter president several months ago. She explained she did not want to represent the organization when she was running for SGA president because MaryPIRG would also be applying and appealing for funding from the SGA legislature at that time.
“I didn’t want anyone on the legislature with political leanings to take it out on me,” Zwerling said.
She added her decision to step down does not suggest she would not be committed to a presidential role. She noted she’s worked with the SGA previously, including involvement with the financial reform commission.
The other executive candidates also sparred over how they would promote change in their own roles.
In the vice president for academic affairs portion of the debate, For Party candidate Liz Antman stressed creating and promoting dean-student advisory councils within each college to connect students with administrators, while Go Party candidate Ryan Heisinger stressed polling and rallying students on issues specific to each academic department.
Additionally, the two vice president for student affairs candidates presented different plans to connect students and alumni and improve public safety. For Party candidate Brandon Zarco said he has already begun work to network with alumni as a legislator and plans to work more with the Residence Hall Association and expand campus safety walks. Go Party candidate Liz Pandya pointed to the creation of a new alumni coordinator position within the body and creating a new version of Nite Ride that student groups would run.
Both candidates for vice president of financial affairs agreed reforming the process for funding student groups is necessary but proposed very different plans to make the process more transparent. Last year, student groups received only about a quarter of the funds they requested from the SGA, which almost left several without enough money to survive another year.
For Party candidate Justin Dent said he plans to form a new committee of student group leaders to be directly involved in deciding how funds should be allocated to each group.
“The problem we have to tackle is not accountability of student group leaders but the transparency of the finance committee and what goes on in that room,” Dent said. “Those student groups and those student leaders know what should and should not happen with funding.”
Go Party candidate Tali Alter disagreed, arguing the financial committee’s work should be kept confidential. She proposed changing the funding process to one that allocates money to groups on a rolling basis rather than having them submit budget proposals every spring.
“There would be less of a sense of urgency to overinflate their budgets,” Alter said.
Voting begins Monday at 9 a.m. and lasts until Wednesday at 5 p.m.
villanueva@umdbk.com
