The forums began with a discussion held by Agora, a student discussion group, on Friday at the Rockefeller Center, followed by a debate focusing on diversity-related issues on Saturday at Cutter-Shabazz Hall. The Elections Planning and Advisory Committee held its debate on Sunday in Carson Hall.
The candidates had the opportunity to ask each other questions at Sunday's debate, which allowed the candidates to directly criticize their opponents' campaigns.
Vernon, as in previous debates, continued to press Lever to provide examples of his leadership experience.
"I am interested in hearing what your experience has been beyond reading the Student Governance Task Force that was written in 2007, that has really given you -- not just reading a document but living through the experience -- kind of that knowledge to be able to really reevaluate and reform that system," Vernon said.
Lever argued that he has gained "hands-on experience" through conversations with members of the Undergraduate Finance Committee, the Council on Student Organizations and Programming Board.
"My lack of personal experience with the UFC is irrelevant when I've had people who are very engaged with UFC, and those student organizations involved in funding, help me develop my perspective on these issues," he said.
Lever, both on Friday and in Sunday's debate, asked Nolan to address an article printed in The Dartmouth on Friday about an e-mail Nolan had sent to Student Body President Molly Bode '09 and Assembly Vice President Nafeesa Remtilla '09.
In the e-mail, Nolan explained his decision to term Bode's administration "bogus" in a previous debate, saying that it was his hope that "whatever transpires over the course of this week can be attributed to election strategy as opposed to actual beliefs."
Nolan said at Friday's discussion that he never intended to rescind his criticism, but rather to make a statement about how his initial comment attacking the Bode administration received more coverage than his campaign platform.
"I do feel like [the Bode administration has] overstepped their boundaries and they have over-programmed," Nolan said on Friday. "What [The Dartmouth] published, however, was that I was taking back everything I said, and that was misleading."
Nolan also criticized the other candidates for "name-dropping," which he referred to as an unnecessary means of effecting change.
Throughout Saturday's debate, the candidates' expressed their support for various efforts to promote diversity on campus, including inter-disciplinary programs and gender-neutral housing.
Lever said that campus organizations must be more "proactive" as opposed to "reactive." He cited as an example the controversy surrounding the March 3 Generic Good Morning Message, which many on campus criticized for its racial insensitivity.
"Had [the Pan-Asian Council] been somehow more engaged in the dialogue that had been going on on campus until that point, they wouldn't have felt so vulnerable," he said.
There was some confusion surrounding Lever's comment, however, as audience members thought Lever had suggested that the Council's response was somehow inadequate.
Lever explained in an interview with The Dartmouth that his comment was not meant as a criticism of the Council.
"If we had more dialogue between organizations, it would have been less [Pan-Asian Council] versus another group," he said. "It would have been more intercommunity coordinated."
After the debate, Lever said he remained for an hour and a half to respond to audience members' concerns regarding candidates' responses.
Candidates were also asked to choose their single most important policy goal at Sunday's debate. Nolan called for Student Assembly to co-sponsor more events, while Lever focused on his proposal for a Peer Adjudication Committee to work with the Organizational Adjudication Committee on group judicial cases. Vernon stressed the importance of managing budget cuts.
Nolan said the Assembly's policy should change to allow the body to co-sponsor events proposed by other organizations. This change will help the Assembly "be the student body's voice," he said.
"We need the Student Assembly to be the active voice of the students, whether we're outreaching to underrepresented communities, mainstream communities or just [Council on Student Organizations] organizations as a whole," Nolan said.
The current process for adjudicating the Greek system "breeds animosity towards the administration," Lever said. A PAC will be "a more representative process," he said.
"As it is now, we have unilateral sanctions on organizations depending on what their infraction may be," Lever said. "There's not Greek leadership involved, there's no athletic leadership involved, there are no unaffiliated leaders involved in the sanctioning process."
Vernon focused on the need to ensure that the organizations and programs funded by the Undergraduate Finance Committee are "extremely accountable for each and every dollar that they're requesting."
"I think by tightening those budgets, by making these organizations more accountable to the students they represent, what we're going to see is that there's going to be additional funding that we'll be able to use in the fall for organizations that might have lost it," she said.
