Questions of reform and representation dominated last night's debate between candidates for student body president, who came together in Tindle Lounge on the eve of today's elections.
The debate, formatted to allow candidates to pose questions to each other, was more contentious than last week's speech night, though only around 25 students -- of whom more than half were Student Assembly members -- were in attendance.
Time limitations prevented the audience from asking questions of their own at last night's event, which Student Body President Stutzman '02 said was arranged at the last minute.
Questions posed by candidates Eric Bussey '01, Tara Maller '03, Janos Marton '04, Karim Mohsen '03 and Michael Perry '03 in large part dealt with reforming the Assembly and making it more representative of student concerns.
Each candidate delivered a brief summary of his or her position at the outset of the debate, with four out of the five stressing a need for differing degrees of structural change to the Assembly.
Marton emphasized "a need for SA to address fewer and bigger issues," while Mohsen stated his desire "to reform the Assembly so that each member has a constituency."
Bussey, who termed himself "a revolutionary candidate," mentioned his plan for holding campus-wide referendums on major issues. Maller spoke of "a need to reform the election system" for choosing Assembly members" to stimulate interest among students," while preserving working elements of the status quo.
Perry, however, said "the way to change the SA is not by changing the [Assembly] constitution," instead emphasizing issues such as social space and undergraduate teaching that the Assembly can address in its current form.
In response to a sharply-worded question from Maller asking what new ideas he brought to the table, Perry replied that the proposed ideas for reform "have all been done before."
"A changed representative system has already been tried," he said, later stating that even campus-wide referendums would neither receive a "good response rate" nor compel administrators to act.
Defending his plan from Perry's charge, Marton said that under his proposed operational structure -- which would reduce the number of Assembly resolutions but increase the amount of time and research put into each -- resolutions "could not be just put under the carpet" by administrators.
Bussey also responded that disregarding a campus-wide referendum "would be terrible press for the College," and stated his desire to establish a "harmonious" relationship between Assembly members and administrators.
Maller -- who like Perry and Mohsen is a current Assembly member -- said she didn't think making changes to the status quo would be "that hard," so long as sufficient interest prevailed to ensure a quorum of voting members at meetings.
Mohsen said he would use his past experience on Student Assembly "as a bridge" to span the gap between planning and implementing reforms that would make Assembly members more accountable to students.
While Perry conceded that "there are problems with Student Assembly," he cited discussion-oriented Assembly meetings and campus-wide conversations as better alternatives to structural change in reaching out to students.
Many of the candidates also pledged their support towards ensuring the fair treatment of the Greek system, in response to a general question asked of the group by Marton.
Mohsen said he would work "to take some of the heat off the Greek system. ... The campus needs to be educated about the good things Greek houses do."
Perry said he would work towards a "trust-based" alcohol policy, while Maller emphasized open channels of communication with Greek organizations.
Other questions concerned the past experience of candidates with the Assembly, definitions of diversity and what schedule candidates had for implementing their plans if elected.
Vice presidential candidates Julia Hildreth '04 and Stephanie Bonan '03 did not debate at the event due to perceived similarities in their platforms and scheduling conflicts, according to Stutzman.
