Although the candidates initially outnumbered audience members two to one, the students running for office focused on accountability to the students and student involvement during a debate Monday.
Primary voting begins today and will end at 9 p.m. Wednesday. The final results will be announced in the Union Ballroom between 8 and 11 p.m. Thursday. A final debate between Elevation and Impact happens today in the Union Theatre at 1 p.m.
Despite Monday’s small audience (it never reached more than 15 students), the two sets of candidates left in the race for the top three positions in the Associated Students of the University of Utah discussed their platforms and ideas for nearly an hour in the Hinckley Institute of Politics.
The candidates spent a lot of time discussing accountability in spending student fees during the debate.
Bill Edwards and Randall Lloyd from the Impact Party proposed informing students on how student government uses the fees.
“I think it’s a matter of educating students and empowering them,” Lloyd said.
Edwards also mentioned open student forums and hiring an outside polling firm to find out what students want ASUU to do with their fees.
Colter Hammer, vice presidential candidate from Elevation, disagreed.
“We don’t feel it would be effective to use student fees on an outside polling firm,” he said. Hammer proposed using students and professors on campus with polling experience to effectively gauge the needs and wants of the student body.
AnnMarie Allen, the presidential candidate from Elevation, also said student fees are important.
“Student fees are a vital part of ASUU and need to be spent very carefully,” she said.
Allen also proposed continuing the truth in funding policy, which gives students a report on how student government uses fees.
The candidates also discussed cutting the guaranteed 39 percent funding the Presenter’s Office receives out of the ASUU activity fee. This year, the Presenter’s Office received about $390,000.
Edwards said such a move was “definitely something to be examined.” He said he would use ASUU’s Development Office to replace the money the Presenter’s Office normally receives from student fees.
Allen supports the Presenter’s Office and the $468,000 it stands to receive from ASUU’s $1.2 million budget, however.
“We believe [the Presenter’s Office] is a vital part of ASUU,” she said. Elevation hopes the Presenter’s Office will make an effort to bring performers to campus that students want to see.
The two candidates for senior class president also participated in the debate. They spoke about increasing student attendance at sporting events.
Matt Menlove, senior class president hopeful from Elevation, called the small attendance at games a symptom of a greater disease at the U. He proposed having activities at the games to boost attendance.
“[Attendance] is something we need to take seriously because it has been slipping,” he said.
Jessica Judkins, senior class president candidate from Impact, proposed to increase game attendance by handing out prizes to people at the games. She also mentioned forming a football fan club, similar to the fan club currently in place for basketball.