Four candidates debated to be the next student body president, two battled for the spot of vice president and a lone treasurer candidate gave an introductory statement Monday night.
Although Ian Shannon is running unopposed for student body treasurer, he still spoke of his vision for the future of the treasurer’s office.
“I believe I have the work ethic necessary to carry it to that position where I want it to get,” he said. “And I believe that I have a legacy plan set in place so that future treasurers will have a mark to set themselves for.”
Senate performance was a hot topic for vice presidential candidates Brian Samples and Lee Goble. They disagreed on how well the current student senate has performed. Goble sees many current programs as still developing and hopes to improve them by analyzing data and improving them next year. Samples wasn't so optimistic.
“[Student senators] really don’t represent the student body that well,” Samples said. “If you ask anybody on the campus, most of them don’t know what student senate is.”
Samples said he hopes to partner student senators with student organizations so senators can hear voices outside the senate chamber, and Goble said he has a polling system in place to gauge student opinions on senate and wants to bridge the gap between the two.
For the presidential candidates, big topics were campus safety — many spoke about improving lighting on campus and Walk Home Cocky, SG’s safety-in-numbers walk program — and connecting the university to the surrounding city.
“I know (Walk Home Cocky) volunteership is currently a little down, but what I want is for that program to work with student organizations,” Aaron Greene said. “That way, they can volunteer for a semester, and we have a good group of students to volunteer walking home kids.”
When it came to USC’s relationship with Columbia, Jonathan Kaufman called for more — more outreach, more people and more involvement.
“I think primarily we need to be more involved reaching out to the city and we need to work with them,” Kaufman said. “Around the city, different institutions, different businesses and different people want to be involved with the university.”
For Jonathan Holt, the answer was connections — students need to know who’s representing them, he said, and the way to do that utilize them, especially when it comes to things like campus safety.
“I don’t think there is an overarching ‘dream plan’ that will make everyone feel safe all the time,” he said. “However, I think we can do this piece by piece and use these public servants as resources.”
And Riley Chambers put it simply with his Bob Marley-esque vernacular: he’d be the president to put smiles on his constituents’ faces.
“If you can positively impact people around you, then those positive vibes will spread,” Chambers said. “I think at Carolina we can get those good flows vibin’ and it will just be a better world.”