Tickets face off at run-off debate
By JASON McFARLEY
News Editor
In private, the two remaining tickets for Notre Dame student body president and vice president were amiable in the 10 minutes immediately prior to their debate Tuesday.
The four candidates, all acquaintances, joked and laughed with each other as they probably had at student government meetings or residence hall parties in the past. They looked and sounded more like pals than political opponents.
Then, in public, running mates Brian Moscona and Keri Oxley and Libby Bishop and Trip Foley lined up on opposite sides of the Hesburgh Library auditorium stage and did for the first time what they had wanted to do since the campaign season began last month: compete.
The debate, a face-off between the tickets that emerged as the top vote-getters in Monday's primary election, was candidates' first chance to question directly each other's experience and goals.
They took full advantage of the opportunity.
Vice-presidential candidate Oxley challenged several of Bishop and Foley's platform ideas — revamping Freshman Orientation, organizing a "Welcome Ty Willingham" tour for the new head football coach and installing detex entry systems for residence halls — as plans student leaders and University administrators have already begun.
"Initially, we weren't aware [that the projects were underway]," presidential hopeful Bishop responded. "That's a fundamental problem — no one was aware of these things. But work on these issues is not finished."
Moscona, the current student body vice president, countered, saying that his office had spent countless hours researching and planning the initiatives and looked forward to bringing them to completion.
"I just wish students knew how many hours you were putting in," Bishop said, emphasizing the need for student government to communicate more effectively with its constituency. Bishop and Foley further contested their rivals' ability to communicate well, asking whether Moscona and Oxley would represent student concerns to administrators.
"Absolutely," Moscona said. "Keri [the current sophomore class president] and I have established relationship with administrators. We'll work to improve the lines of communication with students."
Bishop replied with a swift barb: "I just feel like it's a little late," she said, apparently in reference to student displeasure with University officials' crackdown on tailgating. "I wish communication had been open more last semester." Moscona pressed Bishop and Foley on the tailgating issue. He asked how they expected to interact next fall with administrators who have vowed to continue their tough stance against underage drinking and alcohol-focused tailgaters before home football games.
Bishop answered that Father Mark Poorman, vice president for Student Affairs, hadn't offered an explanation of why officials cracked down or presented a clear definition of the school's tailgating rules. That wasn't true, according to Moscona, because Poorman in a full-page Observer advertisement last fall addressed the concerns.
Foley rebutted, "He didn't say what the policy was in clear language."
The Bishop-Foley ticket, which has campaigned on the idea of eliminating repetitive student government-sponsored programming, faced questions from Moscona and Oxley about a lack of spiritual-, service and academic-oriented goals on its platform.
Bishop and Foley said objectives such as "Grab `n Give" food collections and distinguished lecturer series satisfy those areas.
"I think we spoke earlier about overlap...," Oxley responded, pointing out that many University clubs and departments already sponsor Grab `n Gives and lecture series.
Bishop said their opponents' platform presented discrepancies of its own. Moscona and Oxley have campaigned on the issue of creating less programming and facilitating other clubs' events.
"It's contradicting to say that you're not going to sponsor programming, as I feel most of your platform is," Bishop said about Moscona and Oxley's platform that features several festivals and carnival-type events.
Oxley told them that they had "the wrong idea about our platform." At another point, Moscona and Oxley played up Moscona's experience as vice president, questioning Bishop's fitness to take over the presidency. The student body president chairs such groups as the Campus Life Council, Executive Cabinet and is usually closely involved with the Student Senate and other Student Union committees.
"You've never been to the CLC or other meetings," Moscona said to Bishop, who he worked with last year when he was sophomore class president and she was vice president. "Having no experience with what these groups do, how will you lead them?"Bishop, who studied abroad in London last semester, said, "When you take a step back [from involvement in student government], you gain insight. Leadership is not how many hours you spend on the second floor of LaFortune."
The run-off election is Thursday. On-campus students vote in residence halls. Off-campus students vote from 12:30 to 3:30 p.m. near the first-floor DeBartolo Hall computer cluster.
All News Stories for Wednesday, February 13, 2002
