Monday during “Evening with UOSA,” students heard from CAC chair and UOSA presidential and vice presidential candidates.

After a meet and greet, candidates participated in a discussion moderated by Walker Center Faculty-in-Residence Joshua Landis about issues, campus diversity and engaging students in UOSA.

Prior to this year, The Daily hosted a debate to see how well candidates performed under pressure and expressed their opinions. After a couple years of stale debates, we decided to support the election board’s new discussion format. We were willing to try anything that might engage more students.

However, the120 students packed into Walker Center weren’t the turnout we were hoping for. Most of the students in attendance had already made up their minds and were wearing shirts to endorse their preferred candidates. With so few students in attendance, there was little room for candidates to win over voters.

We were also disappointed by the lack of back and forth interaction between candidates during the discussion. Debates force candidates to interact with each other, and allow voters to see how each side would approach a specific issue. In the event debates get off topic, a moderator is there to refocus the candidate’s discussion.

Monday’s question-and-answer format made it hard to decipher if the candidates are prepared to lead our university.

A better way of having students interact would have been to mix debate and discussion. The beginning of the event would consist of the debate, and afterward students would be allowed to ask questions to candidates to clarify previous statements or to propose a new discussion topic.

During the discussion, each ticket made at least one reference to getting students more involved with UOSA. But what are they going to do once students are involved, and what steps are they going to take to get students involved? These are the types of questions that should have been asked.

Time was an issue, and allowing only 45 minutes for the discussion was not adequate. In the future, we hope to see the event return to a debate format and allow for more time.

In preparation for Monday’s endorsements of student government leaders, The Daily has invited all candidates to meet individually with the editorial board. We will ask final questions of the candidates and discuss pertinent campus issues.

We encourage anyone interested in the future of student government to join us for the meetings and hear what the candidates have to offer the university.

CANDIDATE MEETINGS
Before issuing endorsements for student government leaders Monday, The Daily has invited all candidates to meet individually with the editorial board. We will ask final questions of the candidates and discuss pertinent campus issues. We invite you to join us. All meetings will be held in 160 Copeland Hall.
Today
»12:30 p.m. Forrest Bennett and Katherine Borgerding
Thursday
»12:30 p.m.: Greg Emde
»1:20 p.m.: Bridgitte Castorino
»5 p.m.: Melissa Mock
»5:30 p.m.: Hannah Morris and Laura Bock