Remaining 2 candidates square off
By Helena Payne
News Editor
In the less than half-full Hesburgh Library Auditorium, the two leftover tickets from Monday's student body presidential election defended their platforms and interrogated their opponents before a student audience in Wednesday's debate.
Student body presidential candidates sophomore Charlie Ebersol and junior Pat Hallahan, along with their respective vice presidential candidates, junior Lauren Meagher and sophomore Jeremy Lao, posed four questions to each other, focusing largely on dorm dances, student life and platform feasibility.
Vice president of elections for the judicial council Matt Corgan set a new tone for the debate after opening it with a moment of silence for the formerly missing freshman Chad Sharon whose body was found Wednesday in the St. Joseph River of South Bend.
Corgan also announced that Wednesday would be different from last week's debate with the seven original tickets, which showcased many anti-student government tickets and resulted in one candidate's departure after an opponent verbally attacked him.
"We'll have more of a debate, hopefully, and less of a mockery like last time," he said.
Dorm dances became a contentious topic when Hallahan and Lao questioned Ebersol and Meagher's Total Dance Resource (TDR) plan. TDR would pump an additional $2000 into dorm funds to revamp the residence hall dance until they are moved back into the dorms.
Criticizing the plan, Hallahan said dance commissioners already existed for that purpose and that by consolidating other "bad" resources into one fund, Ebersol and Meagher were exacerbating the problem instead of addressing the return of in-hall dances, or SYRS.
This prompted Ebersol to take a definitive stance.
"There's no question that [dances] need to be back in the dorm," he said, adding that the TDR plan would establish a collaborative body to work on dance improvements in the mean time.
Later, Ebersol and Meagher pushed Hallahan and Lao to elaborate on how they would return dances to the dorms if they were unable to do it as members of student government this year.
Hallahan replied that he and Lao, unlike current Student Body President Libby Bishop, would directly request that the Board of Trustees considers a change.
Making an attempt to differentiate himself from Bishop, former chief of staff for the Office of the Student Body president reminded the audience that he resigned because of his discontent with how things were being handled.
"Jeremy and I are running for one reason: We want to put students first," Hallahan said, adding, "I want to make one thing clear: I am not [student body president] Libby Bishop and I will fight for students."
Putting students first was the mantra of the Hallahan-Lao ticket, which in addition to campaigning for the return of SYRs, also said they had a more well-rounded platform.
"We don't want to turn student government into a programming body," Lao said, referring to Ebersol and Meagher's platform.
Though the platform covers various areas of student life, Ebersol primarily focused on the TDR plan and bringing popular entertainment, such as two top-40 concerts and Saturday Night Live comedians to campus. Ebersol referred to his and Meagher's plan to improve student advising and accused Hallahan and Lao of replicating their ideas.
"It does appear in our media guide," Ebersol said.
Ebersol and Meagher said their plans to change the student government structure to work more with the Student Union Board in planning events, as well as the five-year plan for Student Senate, will make student government a body that makes campus life fun and keeps Notre Dame in contact with outside entertainers.
"You can open the door for five years or 10 years," Ebersol said.
Hallahan asked why Ebersol did not work with the Student Union Board as a freshman and sophomore in order to implement his plans to provide more campus entertainment.
Ebersol told the audience that he preferred to go through different avenues to get involved, pointing out his idea to distribute green papers at the football games to add to the Sea of Green.
"[In SUB], you have to start at the bottom and work your way up," Ebersol said.
Hallahan challenged his statement, saying that part of student leadership is going through the ranks.
"As a freshman, you should have to start at the bottom," Hallahan said. "It seems very convenient that a lot of ideas are coming out at a time when you can run for student body president."
Hallahan and Lao argued that their platform represented the "bigger picture" and that they were experienced enough to improve multiple facets of campus life.
"Student life is a lot more than a Friday night concert or a comedian once a semester," Lao said, pointing out their commitment to publish Teacher Course Evaluations (TCEs), promote more service and implement one-credit diversity discussion courses.
Yet, Ebersol and Meagher challenged Hallahan, saying he would still be considered part of the Bishop office to University administrators and that he and Meagher would provide a new alternative for students.
"It's not about stiff-arming the administration," Ebersol said. "Our platform is not reinventing the wheel."
At the close of the debate, Martha Patzer, a sophomore in the audience, asked judicial council president Danielle Ledesma why audience members were not allowed to ask questions.
"I think that's really undemocratic," Patzer said, adding that it seemed unfair that students could not question the candidates who promised to "put students first."
Ledesma responded that the format of the debate had already been established.
"At the last debate, there was an opportunity," she said, adding that many of the audience members were on the tickets' campaign staffs and would ask "loaded questions."
The final election for the 2003-04 student body president and vice president is online today from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. at https://apps.nd.edu/elections. Students will receive an e-mail from the judicial council with the link.
All News Stories for Thursday, February 13, 2003
