Meet The Teams: SGA Debate
Image courtesy of Zach Lichter
By MaggieMae Dethlefsen
On April 2nd all three SGA Executive Board tickets came to the Della Retta Auditorium to talk about their ticket members and their platform and to answer questions that the students had for them about different school issues.
When it first started, The Tower had the presidential candidates introduce themselves and their ticket. First, junior business and philosophy major Micael Kish spoke as the presidential candidate for Forge. He talked a bit about his running mates and then explained their platform which is centered around “bringing us all together.” He also shared that their symbol is from Lord of the Rings and expanded that “We are disconnected as a university and we want each and everyone one of us to be united under one banner of Catholic University.”
This platform runs primarily on Catholic values which they confirmed during the debate when they were questioned about this, and the presidential candidate responded “of course, we are The Catholic University of America.” Though when asked about how the team would represent the 30% of students who do not identify as Catholic, they responded “that we have to open our arms wide to anyone who wants to come to our school, to make sure they feel heard, accepted, understood.”
From Forge we also got to hear from the vice president candidate sophomore politics major Catherine Weatherwax the vice presidential candidate emphasized that their campaign is one that is rooted in and wants to “create a culture of respect.” Forge spoke on how they are also eager to incorporate the student athletes more into the CUA community. The candidates hope to make CUA a place where students are proud of their teams, and they desire to boost involvement with this side of campus. One initiative that they hope to promote to be able to do this is through SGA sponsored pre-game events for CUA sports games.
Next, junior computer science major Allison Ewing, the presidential candidate, presented SOAR’s platform pillars. She shared that SOAR is an acronym for “students organizing, advocating, redefining.” They want to be able to turn SGA into a “constant resource” for the students.
When that was followed up with how they would engage students, especially those not already engaged with or involved in SGA, SOAR stated that they want to “revamp their social media so that the students are more informed in a way that fits this generation’s current mindset.” Ewing expanded about how the current emails just on senate isn’t enough because it leaves out so much and doesn’t engage everyone since many students are busy and don’t always have the time to read the email. She wants to get more SGA information from all sectors for SGA in a more accessible manner so that SGA is working together to serve their purpose of serving the students.
SOAR, later in the debate, talked about how they want to make more resources available for students of different faiths and students with disabilities, making sure SGA is meeting the students at the place in their journey that they are at and getting the help they need at the time.
SOAR’s vice presidential candidate junior politics and business major Bennett Bert also talked about cultural diversity on campus by saying “our community is one that is so diverse and is one that we can work to ensure is a home for all.” He expanded by saying that he comes from somewhere that is not “just right outside Philly” like many CUA students but he is going to represent students “from all across the country, from all walks of life.” He plans to “advocate for them and support them in every way that they can.”
When sophomore finance and theology major Jack Hermes the presidential candidate was asked to introduce his ticket he introduced himself, his vice president sophomore business and politics major Austin Janssen, and his treasurer sophomore business major Luca Albanese. He spoke about how he and Janssen started running and how it has been going. It was then that Hermes announced that he and Janssen would be dropping out of the executive team race and are putting their support behind Forge CUA. Many were surprised by this announcement because he started off his introduction saying that though he was sick, “there was important business tonight,” and that he decided to “fight, fight, fight.” Thus, when it came out that he was dropping out of the race it came as a shock to many. Later in the night an audience member asked Kish about this turn of events, and he said that he “had no idea until 10 minutes prior.”
After this, the audience got to hear from the secretaries and treasurers along with the presidential and vice president candidates. Audiences got to hear about junior management and philosophy major William Shroeder’s and freshman accounting major James Mazza’s time on treasury board and how that has prepared them for their position; the audience also heard also from junior social work major Franny Noory and junior media and communications major Julie Burke and their work within SGA and other organizations that has given them many qualifications to be able to fulfil the demands of their jobs.
The students were happy to hear more about the ballots and their platforms. The election is on April 8th and the student body is excited to see the results of this election.
