What is your first priority if elected?
Action: “Our Job is to represent the students”. Primary goal is to support student groups. Action would increase money for student funding board and try to increase funding for club sports. Also, would focus on reducing tuition.
Rise: Get students involved with UCSU. Not raise student fees anymore. Emphasize being a liaison between students and UCSU. Believes that if Action ticket raised spending ceiling, student fees would be raised.
Buffs: Lobby state government for more funding for the university. Funding would be used to provide more funding for students, spread around to different student groups. Emphasized representation of students to state government.
| >> Representatives at the Debate |
|
Action Ticket: Chance Heath Blaine Pellicore Rise Ticket: Medhat Ahmed Ruby Gonzalez Clara Nevarez Buffs Ticket: Bryan Browne Uller Doetsch John Slota |
How can the legislative council improve the quality of CU?
Rise: Used example of Law School improvements to show Legislative Council in action. Action ticket members said to have slashed cost center budgets over past year as a member of last semester’s Legislative Council.
Buffs: Proposed increase in funding could allow for improvements to a variety of programs both on and off campus.
Action: Legislative Council can improve CU by focusing on diversity problems. State avenues could also be looked at for additional funding in order to improve CU that way.
How should CU support ASC?
All tickets have mentioned lobbying state legislature to reduce costs at CU, especially textbook prices.
Action: Said Rise is willing to give 10,000 to ASC, but said they want to lower student fees.
How would you vote if another vote came up for CU to disband its affiliation with the Greek Council?
Action: UCSU needs to foster a dialogue in order to help the Greeks and the students. Tickets need to reevaluate the resolutions that have been put forward. Chance Heath: “Recognize the Greeks or you’re not really representing all the students.”
Rise: “We will work with the Greeks and students to help the process.” Working through the Legislative Council is wrong, UCSU needs to look at all the students, not just the Greeks. Rise ticket best represents all of the students.
Buffs: The issue is something the council can’t really deal with because it’s an issue with the admission. IFC needs to play by the rules of the administration. “We’ll do the right things to make sure some kind of settlement is agreed to.”
“We should move past this petty debate and look at the things that matter.”
UCSU’s budget is the largest in the country, how do you fulfill the students’ needs while being fiscally responsible?
Rise: “Do our best to responsibly use all of our funding. … Not only hearing the cost centers but representing them.”
“One of our main goals is to bridge the gap between what the voters want and what the students want.” Buffs proposed audit that doesn’t really benefit the cost centers. Micromanaging cost centers in unreliable, we don’t know enough to micromanage them.
Buffs: “Student fees are what make this university great, we provide many programs that need to continue.”
“We have cost centers that continually remain in debt, we would like to work to ensure that these cost centers are self sustaining and representatives of what the students want. … An audit is a no-brainer with a budget this large.”
Action: We need to foster a better relationship between the cost centers and the legislative council. Smart spending, but not letting it go through the roof. Cost centers should be held accountable, they have councils that their whole job is to be fiscally responsible. Any kind of audit would be too large for UCSU to handle.
How would you avoid conflict with the administration while supporting the students?
Action: “If a situation arises where the Chancellor would trump the autonomy agreement, we need to take a step back and look at the situation.”
“We should avoid situation where autonomy would be revoked.
Rise: Talk to Vice Chancellors, keep lines of communication open.
Buffs: Increase relationship between UCSU, student body and administration overall. Students can lobby Chancellor if the need arises. Increase awareness of UCSU and financial board with student body. “It’s so critical to make what we’re doing here important for the campus.”
Nine out of 10 people don’t know what UCSU stands for.
Medhet Ahmet mentioned the Fair and Equal Access bill from last semester, which Chance Heath supported that would have shut down UCSU cost centers if they failed to recognize IFC. Heath responded that the bill was never voted on.
Why should students vote for your ticket?
Rise: “I think we embody a majority of the colleges here. … We are widely representative.”
“Just because we have color on our campus, doesn’t mean we’re going to focus on special interest groups.”
“We’re not going to be wishy-washy, we’re not going to be moderate.”
Buffs: “Our job is to stick with the student body majority. … We will keep an unbiased view of any referendum.”
“We’re the moderate choice … We will get the funding we need while representing the students.”
“Our entire party is here at the debate, that’s how much we care.”
Action: “We want to focus on the overall experience here at CU.”
“Just to clarify, we’re not an all Greek ticket,” Blaine Pellicore said. “We want to make the experience at CU the best possible for the student body as a whole.”
“Rise’s primary goal is to keep student fees down but they have called me out for trying to keep fees down in the past,” Chance Heath said.
What is the most pressing issue facing Leg Council, and how will you work to resolve it?
Buffs: It comes down to financial responsibility. “We don’t get the recognition we deserve … We want to use UCSU as a catalyst to get the recognition we need.” Rise said the Action ticket has a hidden agenda and being indecisive.
Action: “It’s impossible to focus on one most pressing issue … We’re going to focus on all of them together.”
“To call us indecisive is insulting.”
Rise: “Student fee regulations are out of date, they’re 10 years old … There are a lot of issues we can address.”
What is your favorite part about the other tickets’ campaigns?
Buffs: “They have good goals.”
“Chance is a very good legislative member.”
“Rise is very professional … Rise represents groups that are traditionally under represented.”
Action: Applauds the tickets for wanting to keep fees low, plans to hold them to that promise.
The University has been taking steps to move toward the label of a Public Authority, which is one step closer to a private institution. How do you respond to this?
Buffs: “The state isn’t that invested in us.”
Action: “We need to remain a public institution and foster our relationship with the state government.”
Rise: “I don’t see why anyone would want that for us (becoming a private university).”
Remarks
Buffs: “It means a lot to have an audience that is willing to come and listen to what we say.”
“If you want to meet us, feel free.”
Action: Encouraged students to vote, no matter who for.
“As a student you need to determine who’s best suited to (manage student funds).”
Rise: “Make sure people vote next week.”
“It’s important that students vote, no matter who for.”
