SGA presidential candidates face off in debate

The Southeast Missouri State University Student Government Association presidential candidates gathered at 5:15 p.m. Tuesday evening for a debate in the Towers Complex Fireside Lounge.

The SGA Election Committee organized this event to give presidential candidates Benny Dorris, Dale Swift and Cameron Vinson a chance to answer a few questions and to tell students more about themselves before the election, according to Corey Culbreath, member of the elections committee and moderator of the event. Around 40 people were present for the debate.

The candidates were asked a few questions by Culbreath, and they each had a minute and a half to answer them.

Culbreath began the debate by asking the candidates what they believed their qualifications for the position were.

"I feel that I'm qualified to be student government president for several reasons," Dorris said. "First off I have a set plan for what I want to do if I'm elected into this office and that revolves around enhancing the student experience, increasing student outreach, and continuing providing student services."

Swift said that his experience as an Eagle Scout and his time in Student Government may also help make him more qualified for the position.

"I've been in leadership positions for many years, I was a manager at the scout camp that I worked at for five years. I was manager for four," Swift said. "I was supervisor here at the university at Chartwells. I was there for two years."

Although Vinson does not have any SGA experience, he feels he's had other experiences and gained leadership skills that could help him.

"In high school, I was the band president my senior year," Vinson said. "I was also a sales administrator, which is a couple of steps down from almost being a CEO at Vector Marketing company, so if anyone knows the value of a dollar and the value communicating with people one-on-one, it's this guy."

When Culbreath went on to ask what each candidate believed student roles in the university decision-making process are, he received a range of answers.

"I believe that students have a really good presence as far university decision making goes, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't be looking for more presence and we shouldn't be pushing for that," Dorris said. "Part of the president's job is at the very beginning of his term, he appoints approximately maybe 20 to 25 students to standing university committees to participate in those discussions with faculty and staff and administrators."

Swift was a nonvoting member of the School of Polytechnic Studies board, and he said that his voice represented the voice of everyone in his college. He used this as an example of how students are already involved in university decisions.­­­­­

"The students in student government particularly have a lot of input in a lot of different places that most of us don't even think about," said Swift.

Vinson said that students' roles are limited, but that he doesn't think it is the fault of SGA.

"Students will only involve themselves as much as they feel like they want to get involved. You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink. It's exactly the same way in any university, any college, any high school even," Vinson said. "The role of students should be greater, but I don't see how Student Government has anything to do with that directly."

After a few question from the audience, the debate came to a close just before 5:40 p.m. Dorris and Swift stuck around after the debate ended to converse with member from the audience.

"I think the debate went well overall," Dorris said. "All of the candidates did a good job answering the questions, and surprisingly, I think that on the surface, I touched on everything."

"We all seemed to have an answer ready for the questions asked. There's something to be said about people who have ideas come to their head so quickly," Swift said. "I just wish we could have had a vice president debate too."

About half of the students in the audience were members of the SGA, according to Swift. The debate was not as well advertised to the student body as originally planned due to late notice given by one of the candidates, according to Amanda Graven, member of the SGA election committee.

Lydia Ness, member of the election committee, said that getting the word out about the election was a greater concern to the committee than advertising the debate on such short notice.

"It's important for students to vote in this election," Dorris said. "Students are electing the people who are going to represent the student body for the next year. They should be a part of that."

SGA elections are open to students on Wednesday and Thursday on the Southeast portal.