Anita Mayer (Moderator): I’d like to introduce myself; my name is Anita Mayer I’ll serve as the moderator this evening. And it’s my pleasure to welcome you all to the SGA debate, the first of two. I want to explain a little about how this process is going to work this evening. We’ll be together for about an hour. Well have an introductory time of about 5 minutes each, then I’ll ask each of the candidates one specific question that was generated by students. We’ll then move in the a series of questions that The DA presented, and those questions will be posed to both parties so each party will have the opportunity to answer the same question. And then each party will have five minutes at the end for a wrap up and then some time to spend with the audience ... So it’s my pleasure this evening to welcome Ian McCulloch and Molly Casto from the Mountaineer Choice ticket. OK, I think we just lost a minute of our questions. Also, I’d like you to give a welcoming to the PIRATE Party, Chris Lewallen and Ron Cheng. At this time I will turn the podium over to Chris and Ron and the PIRATE Party for their five minute introduction.
Chris Lewallen (Presidential Candidate for The PIRATE PARTY): Good evening everyone, before we get started I’d like to take a second to thank – Can you hear me now? – OK. Take a second to thank The DA for giving us all this extra exposure this year to help make the who election process more about issues and not popularity and handing out candy. Good? Sorry. My name’s Chris Lewallen, and I’m running for student body president of the PIRATE Party. Usually you don’t get to know the president and vice presidential candidates very well so I’m going to take a minute to tell you about myself and why I’m standing up here right now. Well I grew up in southern West Virginia. I was raised by my grandparents they helped me ... through their leadership and raising me I learned that through hard work, dedication and a never-give-up attitude you can do anything. This became especially important when I accepted my bid to WVU. My grandpa’s an alumni here, and he told me about all the opportunities that he had when he was up here and how I could do anything at a great University such as this one. So I started attending SGA meetings my first semester. I attended almost every SGA meeting, tried to get involved, and I was going to run for Student Government Board of Governors the following semester. Well all of a sudden this United Party came out of nowhere, I had no idea these tickets formed back door, and I felt left out. I went to a whole other year of student government meetings. I sat there and met the right people, gave input when I could. I was lucky enough to get on the Proven Party last year, ran for Board of Governors. Unfortunately I lost. But I wasn’t going to give up either. I applied for an executive position. Jason Zuccari was grateful enough to give me the position of chief-of-staff. With this I was able to meet administrators, make progress with the college cost of living for students, board relations with Sunnyside off-campus housing. Now I stand before you today, running for student body president, and I’ll promise you one thing, I have not given up on the students of this University.
Ron Cheng (Vice President Candidate for The PIRATE Party): Hello, My name is Ron K. Cheng, and I’m running for vice president of the PIRATE Party. A lot of times people come ask me when I’m talking to people ‘Pirates, are you serious?’ And the answer to that question is yes, we are very serious. The reason that we’re doing pirates is to shock and awe. Every year, year after year, you have campaigns that come up to you and say ‘we’re here for change, we’re here for change,’ but you only see them during election time. I’m not about that, we as pirates are not about that. We want to show that we are going to be change, and we’re going to start with the campaign. We’re doing this campaign complete different. And one of the ways we’re doing it, as you can see by these logos, is the pirates. When we say change, we mean it, and we’re going to start change during the campaign. Now me and Chris are some of the luckiest people here because a lot of times you just have to be in the right place and know the right people, but after this election it is my goal that that will never happen again. Regardless of luck, anyone, no matter who they are or where they come from, if they are rich or poor, can run for student government association and that’s why we’re fighting and this is what we’re fighting for.
Mayer: Thank you for the introduction. Ian and Molly to the podium.
Ian McCulloch (President Candidate for the Mountaineer Choice): Can you guys hear me? It’s tough being tall. Thank you. First I want to reiterate what Chris said. Thank you to The DA for creating so much exposure to this election. This is such an important election for all students with the state of the economy ... I’d also like to say thank you for all the attendees, honestly I’ve never seen a debate so hotly followed, and thank you for the round of applause, it was great. My name is Ian McCulloch, and I’m running for student body president with Mountaineer Choice. I’m from southern West Virginia as well, and Chris can tell you, if you come from southern West Virginia, we receive a different set of values. You work hard for everything you get I think both of us grew up with that same type of mentality. A couple things I’d like to say. WVU to me is not just my school, it’s my home. I’ve been here four years. Both my parents went to WVU they actually met here so I guess in some weird way I owe WVU my life. All four of my grandparents went here so I’m very closely tied to WVU. What I do what to say is we all do talk about change, and that’s true. One thing I don’t want to forget is the progress we’ve made forward. In student government we’ve made so much progress, and I don’t that to forget what’s been done in years past. What I do want to do is take student government to the next level. We’re very respected by our administration, but the next step is to be respected by our students and that’s why we’re going to represent the student voice. We’re ready to take a proactive approach in solving problems on this campus. Instead of you coming to us, we’re going to come to you. Like I said, many times the only times people see student government is when we’re campaigning, and one of the things we want to do is have a student speak up week where essentially we go out and do the same thing we do when we campaign and instead of asking for your vote, we want to ask for you input. Tell us what’s wrong with WVU, tell us what we can do to help, and that’s what we’re going to do. And when we do that we’re going to take it to our administration. Whitney (Rae Peters) and Jason Zuccari have done a great job building a great relationship with our current president, but the next step is taking it to our city and state government. There is no reason we shouldn’t have a voice in our city government. WVU make up over 40 percent of the population and possession, and to not have a voice in that body is ridiculous. And that’s why as student body president I would represent students as a student liaison and make sure our voices are heard in the city government and the city council.
Molly Casto (Vice President Candidate for the Mountaineer Choice): Hi everyone, my name is Molly Casto, and I am the vice presidential candidate for Mountaineer Choice. I am also from souther West Virginia, sort of, I’m from the capital, Charleston ... thank you all for coming. As vice president I have a lot of issues I want to attack and face, but my most important issue is keeping my governors organized, on task and most of all accountable to their jobs. I want to make sure that every one of them is always prepared and always knows exactly where they’re going. I think it’s so important that they make these promises to you, they talk to you in the campaign, they hand out candy, they hand out everything and say to you ‘I want to do this, I want to do this.’ I want to make sure that they do that. It’s important that they follow through on their promises. This year I ran on international students and study abroad, and I believe it’s probably the best platform you could possibly run on. I met some of the most amazing international students and had such a great time. Some of them are here today, so they can account to that, that they had a great time too, I think. As vice president I do want to serve you all as best as I can, and I do want to make sure that every single person that I am helping out gets organized and ready is prepared to work for you all. So, I’m excited to be here, and thank you all for coming out and I’m excited to get questions. Mountaineer Choice for the student voice. Thanks guys.
Mayer: Okay are you ready for the individual questions? The first question is for Ian. And Ian, I think probably what I’ll do is pass the microphone to you so to be sure The DA is able to film this ... Ian the question to you is, some members of your ticket were academically disqualified from running for SGA. Do you agree or disagree with the decision? Why or why not?
McCulloch: This has been an ongoing issue, It’s been in The DA several times. We were unaware that both this students were transfer students. If you take into consideration they’re transfer grades, they’re well above the GPA requirement. Unfortunately they come from, they transferred from schools that are not BOT schools, which primarily are in state. They’re both out-of-state students. In the elections code nowhere does it say that your GPA must come from West Virginia University. And the decision was made to disqualify these governors because the elections code is subordinate to a higher code, the Constitution of the United States of America. Nowhere in that Constitution does it say anything about the elections code and making sure governors had above a 2.0 GPA from WVU. So to me, yes, I feel that they were unjustly disqualified. Our two governors in question are so hardworking, they are very committed and very committed to positive change on this campus. They’ve invested so much time and so much effort, and I feel like that if given the chance they could really make a difference on this campus. So yes, I do think they were unjustly disqualified, and we’re still fighting to this day, and we will continue to fight, until this election is over, to make sure they have the chance to run.
Mayer: Thank you Ian, the next question is for Chris, with the Pirate Party. Chris, what is your party trying to reform, when last year you were both members of the party consisting of and supported by SGA "elites" and you currently serve as chief of staff to President Zuccari?
Lewallen: Thank you to whoever submitted the question. The Pirate Party is about reform and opportunity. I want to reform student government. Student government, right now, I think is a small clique of people. It doesn’t need to be that way. And a lot of times it is portrayed as those 30, that close group of people’s opinions. It’s not their opinions, it’s the students’ voice, it’s the students’ opinions. We need to reach out and give opportunities to more students. We can do this by reaching out to leaders of student organizations so they can give their input. Now, yes, we were both members of the Chosen Party last year, and I respect their leadership and administration 100 percent. But even they understand that SGA now needs reform. This year, we’re voting on a new constitution that they wrote. And they understand that to best service students, SGA needs to be reformed. And that’s what we’re about.
Mayer: Thank you Chris, the next question is for Molly. Molly, what would you respond to criticisms for your lack of accomplishments this past year?
Casto: First off, I would like to say I ran on a platform of international students and studying abroad, and when I ran on that platform I also had the platform of student safety and text alert. So, when I first came into office, I gave that platform to Gov. Cameron Taylor who took it on and has worked on it all year. I focused on international students and studying abroad, and I don’t really know why there have been criticisms. I think any international student can attest to the fact that I am a great advocate for international students and for studying abroad, as well as Tommy Napier, who taught me a lot of things and helped me out a lot. I think that everything I set out to accomplish, I accomplished. At the end of the year, I started working on scholarships, I started working on fundraisers, working on socials for international students and trying to get them to be, not only international students here at WVU, but Mountaineers with the rest of us. I think that I accomplished that, and if people would like to discuss that more, I’m very willing to any ideas that they have to help international students or any other students that want to study abroad here at WVU.
Mayer: Thank you Molly, and the last individual question for Ron with the Pirate Party. What would be your response to criticisms of you being unprofessional and having a short temper?
Cheng: As you guys can obviously see through my speaking style, I am an unbelievably passionate person. Now, if any of you have ever worked with me, whether it be up at the law school or with different administrators or with the presidential search committee one year ago – ask these people how professional I am and, you know, go with it. If I am one of the most unprofessional, one of the most short-tempered individuals that this University has encountered does not explain why I am working with people who want to get things done. For example, I was recently selected for the Dean’s Council 2010 as well as participate in various organizations on campus: the Presidential Search Committee, WVU Representing Ethics and Diversity. And I’ve even been asked to go to very many different other organizations – the Chinese Student Association as well as the Black Student Union – to be a guest speaker or to sit on their board for discussions as to how we can improve their organization, and also just to serve my thoughts on how we can better serve students. So, as a response to that I would say go to the people who are willing to work with me. What other people will judge as short-temper, I will say is passion. A lot of times I can’t help myself but to fight for what is right. And those things are always worth fighting for, always worth standing up for. Thank you.
Mayer: Thank you, Ron. The following series of questions were formulated and submitted by The DA. Each question will be posed to each party, and it will be your decision who will answer the question. You will have two minutes to answer the question. The same question will then be posed to the opposing party. We’ll start with the Mountaineer Choice Party, and the first questions is what is SGA’s role in the WVU community?
McCulloch: I believe SGA’s role in the WVU community is to represent the student’s voice and to be an avenue for students to come and voice their concerns. You know, people say that I took off a year, but I’d like to say this: I didn’t take off a year. I don’t think I’ve missed one Student Government Association meeting this entire year. I’ve been involved, I just haven’t been part of the clique. I’ve been outside the clique just trying to break through and have my voice heard. With some of those issues I voiced, not a whole lot was done. With some of them, a lot was done. So I think SGA’s role in the community is to take that student input, and we need to go get that input. And when we receive that input and we engage students, we need to take it to our administration and we need to take it to our city and state governments. Because if students are having problems, we shouldn’t be the last line for people to come to. We should pass on those issues to our superiors and make sure that everyone knows the concerns of students. And make sure that our voices are being echoed in our city government, in our state government and in our Board of Governor’s meetings and in Stewart Hall. And that’s every issue from every student.
Mayer: The same question to the Pirate Party. What is SGA’s role in the WVU community?
Lewallen: To represent the students’ voice. You represent the students voice on many different levels. You represent it to the administration, you represent it to the community and the leaders in the community and the community you live in. You take it to the state level, whatever you have to do to get the students’ voice heard and to best represent the student body.
Cheng: I want to mention that SGA, many times, takes on the role of the middle man. I say, cut that out. Who do you think knows more about club sports issues, the club sports president or Ron Cheng and Chris Lewellen? Obviously, the club sports president. So what you do is you create a committee for club sports, or Sierra Club, or any issue on campus, and you take those leaders on campus, those student leaders, you put them at the front line, at the chairs of your committees because they are the experts. Now, although I might be a sustainable individual, although I might want club sports changed, and participate in various diversity activities, the experts in those fields are the individuals who are currently serving as their leaders, as their presidents. Why not include them? Bring them in and use them. I’m very proud of my self-defense committee because I work with various experts in this field. Students who work with the sexual assault department, Deb Beazley, and they serve on the committee and they get the credits because they are the experts and they know what’s going on. So you take the leaders that are already there and you put them out front. It’s not what your government can do for you but what you can do for your government and that’s what we are committed to, thank you.
Mayer: The next question will go to the Pirate Party. What priorities are you working on that are inclusive for all students?
Cheng: We actually divide a lot of our platforms into two categories. These are what we call innovative platforms. These are platforms that are generally speaking, new. These aren’t the platforms everyone is running on every year. We do want to keep those, you know transportation is very important to talk about, as well as book costs. But innovative platforms is what we have to get other individuals involved. So, just in the construction of our ticket, we have five people in different minorities or cultural backgrounds involved. We work with ever student organization from the beginning. We send them an e-mail, invite them to take part in reaching out, not just sharing international experiences with Americans, but sharing American experiences with internationals. Various work will include committee work. I, and I know Chris as well, are huge fans of committees, Chris with the Neighborhood Student Association and me with the formerly Self Defense Committee, now known as WAR (Women Against Rape). We believe in extending committee leaders out too so they do have the ability to become community leaders and to inspire others to do the same.
Mayer: Thank you, we will ask the same question of the Mountaineer Choice Committee. What priorities are you working on that are inclusive for all students?
McCulloch: One of the things that our past administration has done are the student Speak Up events. And I think that’s a great start, but I think we need to take it one step further. Instead of holding a Speak Up on transportation at the Intermodal Facility where they still have to come to you, why not go to the PRT, why not go to the bus stations to say ‘hey, what’s wrong with the PRT, what’s wrong with the bus stops? What can we do to make this better?’ Don’t make them seek you out. Let’s seek the problems out ourselves. Another thing we want to do, we talked about this, what we want to do is have a week where we’re doing essentially the same thing that we’re doing now, and look how many people we’ve engaged. And instead of asking for your vote, we’re going to ask what you want to see changed on this campus. And if we do that, if we take a proactive approach, we can engage so many students and get so much input on campus.
Casto: Another thing that was proposed this year by Gov. Paul Kast that I think was a great idea was having meetings, one meeting invite international students, the next meeting invite members of WAR, the next meeting invite the Greeks. Why not include everyone? We’re an inclusive group, we want to bring in everyone that we possibly can, every student organization, every student on campus, have them be there. Have them come, have open student forums, say ‘what are your issues about being Greek?’; ‘What are your issues about being an international student?’; ‘How can we help you?’ We want to go to them and we want to be an opportunity for them to come back. Thank you.
Mayer: The next question will be posed to Ian and Molly, the Mountaineer Choice Party. What are your thoughts of SGA passing a resolution to support Israel?
McCulloch: One of the things I think we want to do is change the resolution process so there’s a difference between a resolution and a proclamation. And this would actually fall under a proclamation. I think what Gov. Covitz was trying to do when he reached out for this resolution was to show unity from American universities. Obviously, he realizes that our foreign leaders aren’t going to look and see that student government at West Virginia University passed a resolution and then drop their arms and make a freer Israeli State. What he wants to do is show unity. And I think that we aren’t the United Nations, obviously. I think it was a nice gesture, and I think it was not a resolution but more a proclamation that we show support for people in the Middle East. I think that next year those issues will be cleared up with the new resolution and proclamation process.
Mayer: OK, the same question for the Pirate Party, What do you think of SGA passing a resolution to support Israel?
Lewallen: I agree with Mr. McCulloch, it was a nice gesture. It was a nice gesture, but I believe there is a place and time for these things, and it’s not student government. I believe student government should be all about student issues. What good does it do for us to pass a resolution to support Israel and peace? It is a nice gesture, and of course we’re all for world peace. But I believe, also, you know, we’ve got a Middle Eastern student on our ticket, and the first thing I did after that I went and talked to him and said, ‘hey, how do you feel about this?’ And he said he thought it was one sided. He talked about how peace in Israel has nothing to do with peace in Palestine. If there was a proclamation or a resolution written, it needs to be written just in support of peace and not just Israel. Thank you.
Cheng: I would like to continue that by saying that, though, student government is perhaps the place for student politics, it is not the place for world politics. What next? You could submit the exact same resolution but use the word Taiwan or Tibet and replace Middle East, Palestine with another country. I mean, it’s world politics that has nothing to do with student issues, and it should stay by the students. I would say that it is not the place. Now, in the future, speaking of the Constitution, there is something new called a proclamation, and that would have been appropriate at the time, instead of a resolution. But I would like to mention that I was the only governor who abstained because I thought it was not the place for student government to decide that.
Mayer: The next question will be for the Pirate Party. How will you gain students’ opinions outside of student organizations?
Lewallen: Listen. I think it’s just a simple as that. You have to listen to them as student representatives, students come up to you all the time, and you have to take that time and just listen, pass it on and bring them with you. Get them involved in student government. If they’re that passionate about it then let them have a committee and hand out the committee. I don’t agree with just outside of student organizations, because those are where some of the best leaders and people who get stuff done here on campus whether it’s a Greek organization, other student organizations – those are the leaders on this campus. Those are the people that we should be listening to and reaching out to. The everyday student has the same exact rights as well. I don’t really understand the question I guess. Just listen.
Cheng: We currently have the Speak Up events. I would say, take it a step further than we have. Earlier, when Chris says listen, Speak Ups are fine, but like I said, we shouldn’t act like the middle man. We should have ‘Shout Out’ events instead of having a Speak Up. We will continue to have Speak Ups every month. Why not? We will continue that. That’s a great program. Let’s also have a ‘Shout Out’ in which we bring administrators to these students who might not be in a student organization that can go over our heads. That’s fine. They should. We are pretty much equals whether you are in an organization or not, whether you’re in student government or not. Everyone has the same voice. We just happen to have the title. That’s really the only difference between student government is we have the title, but every student is equal, so we’ll have ‘Shout Outs’ and get every student involved. I am proud to be one of, I think I’m the only governor to have a quote unquote freshman intern, and she’s not involved in any other student organization until after this year now that she’s a member of WAR. So that way there’s a transition period where students can bridge through. Thank you.
Mayer: We have the same question for Ian and Molly. How will you gain students’ opinions from outside student organizations?
Casto: I agree with Chris. As student representatives, our job is to listen. But we are going to go one step further. We are going to go to the students. Like Ian said, if you have a problem with the PRT why sit in the SGA office and wait for someone to come talk to you about the PRT? They probably can’t get there anyway. Go to the PRT and go stand there and talk to them; and when they get off talk to them and say, how was the ride? What problems do you have? You’re still waiting here? What can we do? How can we help you? People have problems with fan behavior. Go stand in line at a basketball game and talk to people and say, what are your recommendations? How can we fix this? How can we be there for you? We’re going to listen to every student on campus and listen to any concerns that they have at the meetings and at any SGA office, but our primary concern is getting out there and talking to students who aren’t in student organizations or who are in student organizations and going directly to them and asking them what can we do for you? How can we serve you? We are your student representatives, you elected us, we’re here to help you.
McCulloch: On the same note, we want to push these students to get involved with student organizations. Obviously we want to seek out opinions of all students, but as a university that has a problem with retention rate, I think one of the best ways to curb that problem is by getting student involved and engaged. And if they know the student government knows and cares about their opinions then I think you’ll see a great deal of turnaround in the retention problem we are having. We want to go out and talk to everyone, even those who aren’t involved in student orgs, but at the same time we want to push those students to choice student organizations, because it’s a great way to keep students in Morgantown.
Mayer: Thank you. As a follow up to that question, and this is to Ian and Molly, one and five freshman are on probation in their first semester at WVU. What is SGA’s role in improving the role of retention of freshmen?
McCulloch: Like I said, get involved. You know, there are two types of freshmen – the freshman who is sitting in his dorm room playing on addictivegames.com or playing Xbox, and there’s that freshman who is excited to be in a new environment, who is bringing change and fresh ideas from all over the country and the globe. Those are the people that are getting involved in different organizations and really it doesn’t have to be a sorority or fraternity organization, it could be going out and playing Frisbee of Friday nights. Truly, the most important thing we in student government can do is to make sure that those student organizations is highlighted. And one of our governors, Gov. Jason Bailey is very, very passionate about student organization awareness. He met with Paul Kast last night, actually I was there when he met with him, and he’s going to continue the student organization awareness week, which he started this year and he’s also started several other ideas to highlight the benefits of being in the student organization and the benefits of getting involved on campus, because that’s what’s going to keep students in school here.
Mayer: Thank you. Oh sorry. Molly.
Casto: All right, well I was thinking, at the beginning of the year I remember student government went to freshmen dorms when they were moving in with our SGA shirts and people looked at us and said, ‘oh you’re with student government. How can we get involved? When can we be there?’ Why not on the first day of move in have all student organizations with their T-shirts on helping freshmen move in? Because that was such a great showing for us. Just get people involved. Another way to get involved is doing community service on campus, getting involved in student organizations and doing community service. Gov. Jamie Chatman is working with student organizations and community service with Molly Wilson, something that can keep students involved. If they feel like they’re contributing to this University, this campus and this town, they’re going to want to stay here and improve it.
Mayer: Thank you Molly. We will pose the same question to Chris and Ron. One in five freshmen are on probation at the end of the first semester. What is SGA’s role in improving freshmen retention?
Lewallen: Well, one in five, that’s pretty sad. It’s not just a problem at West Virginia University, it’s a problem all around the country, especially in this state. I heard the chancellor of higher education one day speak about 100 people just started kindergarten, 83 of those will make it to their senior year and 75 of those people with graduate; 62 of them will go to college, and only 34 of them will graduate college. The way that we’re going to solve them getting through college and staying in school is we’re going to go, when we’re elected, start going to elementary schools, middle schools and high schools and start talking to them about opportunities here at West Virginia University and how they can get involved here, how great of a place it is here and how great it is to go to college, and you can go to college and have it be affordable, and how you can get involved here. I graduated high school and didn’t study a lick and you come to West Virginia University and you say, ‘hey, listen, I’ve got to take biology 101’ and that’s not an easy class. You have to study and buckle down a little bit, so that’s where I think it has to start in the primary schools.
Cheng: That’s actually one of our innovative platforms, actually one of our first ones as it was released online, and it’s about how we want to work with younger students because we are not just here for ourselves, we are here for future students and future students start in primary school. This is already a current initiative done by several organizations that we want to improve upon. For example, Megan Flynn, I think she’s the president or vice president of the National Collegiate Scholars Group. They actually bring fifth graders to this University’s college fair. We said, ‘hey, let’s expand on this.’ And I’ve actually already talked to her about this and they are very excited to work with us in the future to expand that program even further. This way, we include student organizations that are already out there doing those same things, but at the same time we bring those benefits to the high school students, middle schools students, elementary school students to know that we can do this. West Virginia, our education is sometimes criticized nationally, but this is how we fix it while we’re young, and we build them up all the way through college, and we make sure they graduate. One of our current governors Ali Mols, she’s working on advising issues, and she’s working on thing so students know where to go every step of the way. Thank you.
Mayer: The next question will be for the Pirate party. Why is your ticket better suited to serve the university than your opponent?
Lewallen: First and foremost, we have a full and complete ticket. Secondly, we have a ticket made up of five minorities, one being the first international student to ever run for student government. I think we best represent the student body because of that great diversity that truly represents the student body. There’s never been a ticket in student government that looks like me and Ron. I think that says a lot about what we’ve done since we’ve got here and got put in this place and said, ‘we want to do thing differently.’ That started with the Pirate Party, started with we interviewed 57 people, we wanted to put the most competent people in place. Winnability was almost not a factor.
Cheng: I would also like to elaborate on that based on record. Regardless of where we come from, and that was actually a huge interview question for our candidates, what are you involved with? What have you done with leaders? And we evaluated all of these things, because you can have all the flash and you can have all the show, but at the end of the day if you can’t deliver, what’s the point? And to make sure we are able to deliver, Chris and I will set up timelines, timelines both for short-term goals and long-term goals and set accountability very high, which as some of you might know is my kind of personality. But with that being said, we have a very broad range of people representing every group of people and from there we are going to build them not only as leaders but to build their constituencies as leaders and servants of this university. Thank you.
Mayer: The same question for Ian and Molly, the Mountaineer Choice. Why is your ticket better suited to serve the University than the opposition?
McCulloch: Well, I think several reasons. Personality is one. We kind of reflect the reclusive body that we are trying to become. Both of us I think are easy people to come up and talk to and on the diversity issue, you know god made me 6-foot-4. I’m never going to be under 6-feet tall, but that doesn’t mean when I’m elected, I’m not going to represent short people. Laughter. I don’t have to be a racially diverse person to represent racially diverse issues. Two of the best international student advocates I’ve ever seen on this campus are Molly Casto and Tommy Napier, both Caucasians and both from West Virginia. That being said, we have a very, very diverse ticket. We have people as far north as Buffalo and as far south as Palm Beach and as far west as Denver, Colorado. We have people from across the board. We are very committed to representing every student on this campus and unfortunately our one racially diverse student was disqualified, but I really don’t really think that sets us back as being a diversly conscious administration, because I want to represent every student, I don’t care if you’re black, white, green or blue, what religion you are. If you’re a Mountaineer and you have a voice, I’m going to represent it.
Mayer: Thank you. Ian and Molly, the next question will be for you. What is the biggest issue on campus that you would like to address?
McCulloch: That’s a very good question. That’s a very tough question to put into one issue. If there’s one issue that’s most important to me, it’s obviously making student government a more proactive body. But one thing I would like to touch on is the tuition freeze. The governor has put a push on the University so that we, and especially me, if you’re the president, you will be sitting on the university’s Board of Governors, and they’ll be making the decision to either freeze or raise tuition next year, I think it’s very important that we take the governor’s opinion and we stick to it. We are in an economy in a recession and families all over the country are tightening their financial belts. I think it’s important that a leader speaks up for those that are having trouble affording school and make sure that next year they don’t have to worry about a 4 or 8 percent increase in tuition. So obviously there are tons of issues I feel equally important. That’s a very tough question to answer Anita, but that’s one thing that I really want to make sure that students voices are echoed in that board room.
Mayer: Chris and Ron the same question for you. What is the biggest issue on campus that you would like to address?
Lewallen: I would agree that there are a lot of issues that need to be addressed, and it’s hard to put one issue above the rest. We’ve got lots that we are going to tackle when we win this thing. First and foremost, it’s got to be about keeping college costs low. If students can’t afford to go to college then there is no college. This is the No. 1 University in the state obviously, and with all that we have to offer, why can’t every student in the state go to the best school in the state? Why cant every student in the state go to a school that has a law school or a medical program has a dentistry program, forensics. All of those things are offered here, and every student should be able to go here. It seems like every time there is a problem we need to work on something that we need to build something, the administration tries to put it on our student fees. This can not be the way. We can’t vote for student fee increase, because during this time of recession, it’s not just hard for the university, it’s not just hard for the state, it’s hard for the students.
Cheng: And how we can demonstrate that is by practicing a fiscally conservative administration, or basically saving costs for student government. For example, I think it’s kind of strange that during Sustainability Week, we had unstainable, sustainable stress balls that were not made of biodegradable material. We don’t need to buy that. That can be used for a better project and we have to be careful what we spend. Even though we are talking about to be saving money for our students, we ourselves will be saving money for the students and practice what we preach by looking at what is needed and what is not and what helps students and what does not help students. The issues that help students are the ones we are going to pursue. Thank you.
Mayer: Thank you Chris and Ron. The next question will be for you. Is fan behavior a problem? If so, how do you plan to fix it? If you do not see fan behavior as a problem, explain why not?
Lewallen: It all depends on who you think it’s a problem for. I think rowdy and excited fan behavior is great for the basketball team and it’s great for the Mountaineer community, it’s great for the students. It’s great that students can go out and participate and be loud and yell crazy things. I think sometimes that this gets built up and goes too far. The F-bomb on national T.V. is a little too far. When a coach gets hit in the face from something that is thrown from the fans, obviously that’s going too far. I think we need to take steps, and have taken steps of the Maniacs and Student Government, to limit this type of interaction to stay loud and crazy.
Cheng: To continue with that, one of the things is that West Virginia University is one of the few colleges that have the broadcasting right near the students. I say, the university also has a responsibility. As students, we should be responsible to be rowdy, but we can also we responsible. At the same time, the university also has to be responsible to make this as liability proof as possible. One, consider maybe where the broadcasting booth is and move it to where more responsible students are but still are able to portray that. It’s possible. Television journalists know where the perfect spots are, but at the same time the staff also has to do their job and restrict students from getting too out of control. When they do, escort them out politely and respectfully. Yes, students need to take a stand, but at the same time, the university has to work with us hand-in-hand in order to satisfy this issue. Once that is done, we can continue cheering loudly and very proudly. Thank you.
Mayer: Thank you Chris and Ron. The same question for Ian and Molly. Is fan behavior a problem? If so, how do you plan to address it? If you do not see fan behavior as a problem, explain why not.
Casto: Thank you Anita. Just like any other Mountaineer, I love my sports. I go to every football game, and I love our basketball team. I do think that sometimes being a little rowdy can go too far. Our athletic council Riley Dunn and Zach Redding have great ideas. Maybe my favorite idea that they had was the "Watch the ‘Eers" campaign, where not only students, but alumni and fans who are in town for the game need to know what’s going on and be prepared for the game. Why not have the cheerleaders out there an hour before the game to practice a cheer before they go in, so everyone knows what they’re cheering. I think sometimes fan behavior can be a problem. There needs to be absolute zero-tolerance for throwing things on the court. If a game is close and I throw a cup on the court, I could lose the game for my team. There needs to be nothing thrown and no F-bombs yelled over national T.V. But as far as rowdy fan behavior, we’re Mountaineers and we’re always going to be rowdy and we’re always going to be excited and we’re always going to say fun and crazy things to get our team excited, so I don’t think that that’s a problem, but as far as throwing things and profanities, zero tolerance.
McCulloch: I think there’s no great way to change a culture of a fan base. But I think that one of the things Molly and I agree on is that it has to come from the students. It has to be a student-led initiative. The "Watch the ‘Eers" campaign is a student-driven campaign, so it’s not saying Vice President Gray saying, ‘guys, watch your mouths.’ It’s me telling Molly, ‘listen, if you say that, it’s not acceptable.’ I’ve been coming to WVU games since I was a little kid and one thing I always say is "Let’s Go Mountaineers" was one of the first 10 things I ever said, and I remember coming here and it being such a magical place and a very family-oriented stadium and I just remember having a great time. I just feel like some of the children and some of our senior citizens that continue to come to these games, we are doing a big disservice by filling the air with these negative chants, and we’re really putting a bad mark on our university by attracting all our national media attention with our lude fan behavior.
Mayer: Thank you. The next question will be posed to Ian and Molly. What steps does SGA need to take to help club sports at WVU?
McCulloch: I was lucky enough to be contacted when I was a governor by a good friend of mine who is on the rowing team and he said, ‘club sports at this university get 400 dollars a semester and we row on boats that coast 10,000 dollars. We need help. We have no money, will you please come to our sports club federation meeting?’ and, myself along with Tyler Pearson went to the club sports meeting and it was like a whole can of worms opened. They had at the time no funding whatsoever, no place to call home, our rival teams wouldn’t even come here because there wasn’t adequate field space. Luckily, this year President Clements and President Zuccari and Vice President Peters have worked very hard and diligently on things that President Parsons and Governor Pearson and I worked on the year before. President Clements has granted us 1.5 million dollars for our athletic fields. That being said, our club sports are still drastically under-funded and one of the things we want to do is help them with their fundraising, help them partner with city parks to get them field space for a cheaper cost. When we renew the fiscal plan for next year, it’s important that we reach out for more money for these programs, but at the same time not putting the burdens on the students. We need to reach out for federal grants and stimulus money and things like that to curb the cost of these organizations.
Mayer: Thank you. Same question for the PIRATE Party. What steps does SGA need to take to help club sports at WVU?
Lewallen: First off, let me start off by saying I love club sports. Club sports are just like all of the other sports like basketball and football, they represent the blue and gold. They put on the flying WV and go out and compete. A lot of times, they don’t get enough publicity and enough funding and a lot of anything. And they’ve raised these issues, they’ve come to the SpeakUp events and talked about the things they’ve needed. The two main things are more money and field space. We’re working on getting them more money. Currently, we’re setting them up a foundation for fundraising. Also, President Clements pledges 1.5 million dollars to club sports, so we’re going to use this to build a field over by St. Francis fields and do it right, do it the way they want it and do it the way that’s going to last the longest and that’s going to be sustainable. Also, another way to get club sports a place to play is utilizing places like Mylan Park and doing parternships with them. They have a lot of great facilities that we can utilize along with the administration’s help.
Cheng: A part of it is also publicity, as Chris said, mentioned a little bit before. I would like to say one of our governors, Miss. Allison Rollins, I believe is one of the only, if not the only, female sports writer for a major publication here on campus, I’m not sure if I allowed to disclose it. But also, because we have such active groups like the Maniacs also supporting us, they know these issues and we will be listening to them and see what they want to do. They are experts with this club stuff and we are always willing to work with them to develop solutions to problems. Solutions both short term and long term.
Mayer: Thank you all for answering the questions. We will now go into our closing. Each party will have five minutes to give their closing remarks and we will start with the Pirate Party if you could come to the podium.
Lewallen: You know, we’ve talked a lot about ourselves tonight - me and Ron, Ian and Molly. But we want to say, this isn’t about me and Ron, Ian and Molly. This isn’t even about student government, it’s about the student body, and you want to pick and vote for the people that best represent your student body. Also, I’d like to mention the Board of Governors and Athletic Council people we’ve put together. Like I said earlier we have interviewed 57 people. We took the best, most competent people we could take. We competed against a lot of people. It was an aggravating process, but I think we’ve got a team together that is unbelievable, that is really diverse, that is really going to truly represent the student body. Another thing: our campaign techniques. Obviously, we’ve got a sense of humour - the Pirate Party. We’re doing things differently, we have to do things differently. You can watch videos online, we’ve got those up. And it’s because we don’t take ourselves very seriously, but we are taking our jobs extremely seriously. And that’s the message we’re trying to portray and get out there. And there’s clear differences between the two tickets, and I think it’s a funny way to use social media to portray those differences. There’s people that have shown up in the past, there’s people that haven’t. There’s people who have had major accomplishments and truly fought for the students since they’ve been here on campus.
Cheng: When god gives you lemons, you can take the lemon as is, you can make lemonade, or you can do things my way, which is demand apples. And that’s what we’re here to do, we’re here to demand apples. One of my personal goals is to make sure this election doesn’t look the way it has in the past. Students can not afford to spend, if you’re running for governor $450 or $500 of your personal money, that’s ridiculous. I know I myself cannot take out $500 from my bank account, I don’t know any normal student who can. You have to be resourceful. And if it’s up to us, and we’re actually doing this with the constitution review, which is coming up, and then the election review. These are issues that need to be discussed, so students, no matter their economic background, or whether they’re, again, international students from halfway across the world. No matter where they are from, how much money they have, how much they can spend, we’re not going to discriminate against the rich or poor. And we need to focus that, to truly open up student government, eliminate these obstacles and give them a chance to shout out to the administration and to demand apples. And that’s why we are here.
Lewallen: Let me just, real quick, finish off with this. Don’t vote for me because you’re my friend. Don’t vote for me because you think the PIRATE Party’s funny. don’t vote for me because you think we worked the hardest on the campaign. Surely don’t vote for me because we handed you a piece of candy and a flier. Vote for me, vote for us, vote for the PIRATE party, because you think we’re best going to represent the students’ voices. Thank you.
Mayer: Thank you Chris and Ron. And now we will give five minutes to Ian and Molly, the Mountaineer Choice Party.
Casto: First off, I would like to thank the DA, and especially Anita, and everyone here who has come to support us. I’m really excited there’s so much competition. You know, we can clearly see, Mountaineer Choice, PIRATE’s over here. But, first and foremost, we would like to encourage everyone, whether you’re a Mountaineer or whether you’re a PIRATE, to vote on MIX next week the 25th through the 27th. It’s really important, I know, sorry, but everyone needs to log on to their MIX and vote, because that’s how student government works. If we get input from every student on this campus, then the right person will win. So, competition breeds better results. We’re excited about this election, and we can’t wait. So, thank you all for coming.
McCulloch: I want to agree, again, with what Chris said. You know, it’s good to see everyone out here, and thanks again to the DA for making this such a widely covered event. And I want to thank my opponents, Chris and Ron, for being out here. One thing that I think has been said about our ticket is that we are not diverse and we have a bunch of money. I’m not sure where that comes from. We have several students who are first generation college students. I come from an area in West Virginia that is one of the most poverty stricken areas in the country. I lost my father when i was 17 years old and I didn’t get to collect an inheritance check. But what I did get to collect was two things that he told me to live by before I came to college. He told me to always honor my debts, and my word is my bond. I feel that I am deeply indebted to this university. I said this before, I owe this university my life - my parents met here. But this university has given me so much. It’s given me great friends. It’s given me a chance to enhance on my leadership skills. It’s given me so much, and the best way for me to pay the university back is by representing it as its student body president and by pushing the student voices to the administrators. The second thing he left me with was my word is my bond. We discussed a lot of our plans. And we’ll discuss many more in the next debate I’m sure, and you’ll hear many more over the next couple weeks. Let me just tell you, and you can probably attest to this Chris, being from Southern West Virginia, my word is my bond. If I tell you I’m going to do something, I’m going to do it. If you vote for me don’t vote for me on whether I’m a Greek or a non-Greek. Don’t vote for me on anything except merit. I promise you I’ll work tirelessly every day to push that student voice and to honor my word and to pay back my debt to this university. Thank you.
Mayer: Ian and Molly, Chris and Ron, we want to thank you all for coming tonight. We also want to thank the audience for your participation. I want to encourage all of you to attend the second SGA debate which will be held on Monday, Feb. 22 at 8 p.m. in the Mountainlair. I’d also like to encourage you to submit questions, and your questions can be submitted to daperspectives@mail.wvu.edu. Let’s go ahead and give all of our candidates a big round of applause.
Be the first to comment on this article!