Presidential candidates from an unprecedented number of Freshman Class Council slates debated for the first time ever Sunday night.

The five slates were represented by presidential candidates Tej Azad from The Freshmen Leaders of Wash. U. (F.L.O.W.), Joshua Bridges from Nickel, David Lam from Blues Friendly Five (BFF), John Mern from Mystery Machine, and Alix Simnock from Hi5.

While the sidewalks all over the South 40 have been covered by chalkings from the five slates for around a week, the debate was the first real opportunity for the groups to address their platforms.

“I hope that the freshmen can really know what the slates stand for because what this has been so far has been a publicity push and who can get their name out there the most,” said Nate Ferguson, Student Union vice president of programming and the debate moderator.

The candidates debated Sunday night in front of an audience of about 50 people in the Mudd Multipurpose Room. The debate was streamed on the SU Web site and lasted for an hour.
The hour began with each candidate’s opening statement, followed by 40 minutes of questions from Ferguson and ending with 20 minutes of questions from the audience.
Ferguson’s questions centered on the candidates’ qualifications, plans and goals for the upcoming year. Due to the number of questions asked and the number of candidates in participation, each answer was kept to a strict time limit of one minute.

Ferguson said the debate was a chance for the slates to showcase their goals as a voice for the freshman class.

“I hope that they were able to differentiate between the slates—not just the slates that could chalk the best, but had the best ideas,” he said.

The span of ideas presented during the debates ranged from freshmen coffee hour to homecoming week to a farmer’s market on the South 40.

It’s most competitive election in recent memory due to the number of slates, impressing Ferguson and many other SU members.

“It’s awesome. I think this will really help legitimize the class council in the freshman class’s mind, and I’m excited to see a competitive election,” Ferguson said. “As evidenced by their campaigning, everyone has been taking this very seriously.”

While this was the inaugural Freshman Class Council debate, SU is hoping that debates will become a part of every election.

“We actually plan on doing some variety of this for the next two elections—fall Senate elections and spring elections,” said senior Colin Towery, SU elections commissioner. “Obviously, with Senate and Treasury elections, there are a lot of candidates for a lot of seats, so we’ll probably do a forum or open-forum-type thing [rather] than debates, but we’ll have to have these live events again for each election.”

Sunday night’s debate was attended by non-SU students like freshman Princeton Hynes, who said he came to learn about each slate to help him decide which one he should vote for.
“Quite a few of my friends are in each slate, so I didn’t want to be the person who votes for his friends,” he said. “I came to hear what my friends had to say.”
Hynes said his criteria for the best candidate will depend on more than just one’s abilities in debating.

“They’re all very good speakers, very good political speakers, so I’m going to have to vote based on who I think will do something afterward, who I think is more passionate,” he said. “That’s something I don’t think I can take away from their words but from how they said them.”

Freshman Kelsey Brod, another student who attended the debate, also said she knew many of the students running.

“I’m going to have a very difficult time deciding—this debate was the deal breaker for me,” Brod said.

Brod said she was disappointed that the candidates “weren’t really specific about some of their goals. But I’m excited about their excitement.”

Brod participated in the Leading Wash. U. Style Pre-Orientation program along with 12 of the 25 candidates running on freshman slates, which Ferguson said he believes is definitely an advantage in the competition.

“I think [the program] allows them to start thinking about it a little earlier. From the first day of Pre-O, we explain, ‘What is SU?’” he said. “While some people are trying to transition through orientation, the slates may have already been formed.”

Voting for Freshman Class Council will take place on Wednesday and Thursday on WebSTAC.

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Tags: Freshman Class Council, slate, Student Union

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