Candidates for Student Body President squared off in Collis Commonground Sunday night, grilling each other in the final -- and most intense -- debate before voting begins Tuesday.
Student Assembly veterans Brian Martin '06 and Noah Riner '06 stepped up their attacks of Paul Heintz '06's lack of an Assembly record throughout the night. Heintz, the only candidate never to have served on the Assembly, continued criticizing the student government as irrelevant and out-of-touch with students' concerns in the debate.
"I don't feel that Student Assembly represents me and I don't feel it fights for me," Heintz said.
Riner cut out the personal history with which he had been starting his opening statements in the previous two debates and quickly jumped on Heintz, saying it is easy to point fingers at Assembly leaders when one lacks experience in the Assembly.
"If I were a comic strip writer, I could say your comic sucks, but if I've never picked up a pen and attempted to write a good comic, then my criticisms are hollow and empty," Riner said, referring to Heintz's comic "Guy and Fellow."
"The difference among us is that some people have a plan and some have experiences and a way to execute that plan," Riner said.
Decreasing class sizes topped Riner's priority list, which also included his plan to allocate $10,000 for Greek house renovations. Riner, however, said that he was "also here to criticize the Greek system," specifically on the issue of women's discomfort in the social scene.
Riner's opening remarks elicited a fist pound of affirmation from Martin, whose supporters, bearing "Vote BMar" stickers on their upper arms, filed into the first two rows of the audience at the start of the debate. Martin said he garners support from "the best people in SA."
In response to a question from moderators asking who each of the candidates would chose as their second choice in this year's new instant run-off voting system, Martin named supporter and Assembly vet Diana Zhang '06.
Heintz also named a non-candidate as his choice.
"I would probably have to write in Jimmy Baehr ['05]," referring to Riner's campaign co-manager. "He's got very good videomaking skills, he makes good websites -- tilda Noah Noah," Heintz sarcastically remarked. He went on to urge Riner to try his hand at a comic strip, "because that would be really awesome."
Current Assembly Vice President Todd Golden '06 said he would vote for Riner as his second choice.
"He served as a vice president like I have, he knows what happens behind the scenes, he knows how SA runs," Golden said.
Golden cited alumni affairs and a new committee on campus safety he started as top priorities for next year and again referred to his work distributing students' rights cards and training students in CPR as record highlights.
Riner said he would support candidate Mats Lemberger '06 as his second choice.
"I've never seen anybody work so hard and he's doing that for charity," Riner said of Lemberger, who organized the Festival for Humanity last year to raise money for Habitat for Humanity. "I think that he's an authentic person," Riner said.
Moderators asked Lemberger, whose proposal seeking Assembly funding for this year's Festival for Humanity was shot down a few weeks ago, how he would decide what events the Assembly should co-sponsor without letting his involvement in other projects influence him.
"I would have to trust my judgment as to what constitutes an event that provides a good service to campus," Lemberger responded.
Lemberger described himself as "a project-oriented person who's passionate about all that he endeavors to achieve," as he has in past debates, and named installing expensive electronic bulletin board systems as his top project for the coming year.
Lemberger said he would have endorsed Heintz if he were not running because of his "good sense of humor."
Heintz later asked Lemberger, "How would you like to run as a write-in for VP?" in the third round of debate, where each candidate posed a question to a fellow contender.
Lemberger declined the invitation to leave the race.
Only about 50 students attended the heated presidential debate and less than half that number were present for the preceding vice presidential forum, in which freshmen Jeffrey Coleman and Travis Green and junior Chris Galiardo briefly discussed their records in front of a small and unengaged audience.
Green is a member of The Dartmouth staff.
The debates was sponsored by the Elections Planning and Advisory Committee, which runs the elections for both races, and moderated by members of EPAC.
