In what may indicate low voter interest in this year's elections, all five candidates for Student Assembly president debated in front of a crowd of less than a dozen people last night in Hinman Forum.
The sparse attendance and tomfoolery of Jack-O-Lantern candidate Brett Quimby '02 helped to characterize the debate as somewhat comical and informal.
The format of the debate consisted of several parts, including one in which the candidates briefly introduced themselves and then answered questions posed by moderators Aly Rahim '02 and Collin O'Mara '01.
It was revealed in The Dartmouth yesterday that both Rahim and O'Mara have ties to two of the presidential campaigns, yet they did not step down as moderators.
The second part of the debate consisted of questions which the candidates asked each other, as well as those posed from the audience.
Alex Grishman '01 asked Jorge Miranda '01 how he would respond to accusations of being anti-Greek.
Miranda responded by saying that he would defend the Greek system.
"I don't think it's in the best interests of Dartmouth to get rid of it," he said.
Meg Smoot '01 asked Wilson what he would do specifically to tackle his proclaimed trio of issues -- gender relations, diversity and student choice.
Wilson said he would organize a forum for students from different sectors of campus to discuss these issues, work toward the realization of a Latino resource center and move the existing Women's Resource Center to a more centralized location on campus.
During Wilson's chance to pose questions to other candidates, he directed all of them toward Miranda, the frontrunner according to a poll released yesterday. He asked Miranda why he advocated a "Student Voice Initiative" but had voted against a referendum which would gauge the opinion of the entire student body on the Assembly's response to the steering committee's recommendations.
Miranda replied that he didn't think the Trustees and administration should listen to the Assembly necessarily because of the number of students who supported it but because of the merit of the ideas it had come up with.
Wilson also asked Miranda whether or not he considered Wilson as someone who didn't place a high value on fostering diversity on campus.
Miranda said that based on Wilson's involvements at Dartmouth, "I haven't seen you make much of an issue of it."
At one point during the event, Quimby took several bites from an apple before mumbling an answer to a question posed by O'Mara, eliciting much laughter from the audience.
Although most of the discussion that occurred between candidates centered on issues and ideas that had already been set forth in previous speeches and articles, at least some students felt that the debate served to sharpen the lines of contrast between the candidates.
One student said that he had known little about the candidates before the debate, and that watching them interact with each other and the moderators helped narrow down his voting choices.
Included in the audience were current Assembly President Dean Krishna '01 and Vice President Margaret Kuecker '01, two candidates for Assembly vice president and supporters of specific presidential candidates.
