Candidates for the SIU Board of Trustees’ student position presented plans to find alternative sources of funding to combat student fee and tuition increases as they vie students’ votes today and Tuesday.

Undergraduate Student Government presidential and vice-presidential candidates also participated in a debate held at the Student Health Center Auditorium Friday. Elections for all three positions will be held today and Tuesday through university e-mail accounts.

The two trustee candidates – Marcus King, a USG senator and freshman studying journalism, and Nate Brown, a second year law student who currently holds the position – agreed fees were too expensive for students.

However, their plans for solving the problem were unique.

King said he would like to see the university give more power to Registered Student Organizations and specifically named the Student Programming Council. He said the events SPC holds, which raise thousands of dollars, could be used to offset student fees. Other alternatives, such as selling beer at SIU sporting events, could also be used, he said.

Brown said selling beer at sporting events would help combat rising fee increases, but it would go against state law.

He said joining forces with the administration to lobby for more state funding in Springfield or finding areas where the university can cut back financially could be better alternatives.

‘What you have seen as state funding has gone down, our reliance on student fees and tuition has gone up,’ Brown said. ‘We have to find a way to reach into other streams of revenue. Or, we need to go to the state and say we need more money.’

King said tuition and fees have risen almost to the point where an education may not be worth the price.

‘School is at the point where it is getting out of hand,’ he said. ‘It’s getting to the point where it’s not going to be affordable to come here and that will be devastating on so many levels. You are going to be paying loans and grants for so long that by the time you are done with your own, you’ll start paying for your kids’ loans and grants. When will it end?’

USG presidential and vice presidential candidates also debated in hour-long sessions.

Presidential candidates – USG vice president Vincent Hardy, and senators Priciliano Fabian and Dana Agusto – answered a variety of questions, including what their main goals would be if elected.

Agusto, who represents the College of Education and Human Services, said she would like to lower fee increases if elected.

Hardy said he would like to keep USG simple and use his powers to moderate the group as fairly as possible.

Fabian, also a representative of the College of Education and Human Resources, said he would like to fix internal problems, such as addressing allegations that the money allocation was corrupt.

Fabian said he brought up funding revision in USG meetings before and specifically identified Hardy and his association with Alpha Phi Alpha as a conflict of interest.

Hardy recently became a member of Alpha Phi Alpha, a fraternity that frequently seeks funding from USG.

USG is responsible for funding hundreds of RSOs, including fraternities and sororities.

‘I really don’t know if I can trust (Hardy) without (Alpha Phi Alpha) interfering with his judgment. I really don’t have that trust,’ Fabian said.

But Hardy said no such conflict of interest existed.

‘I have nothing to hide; I am very open and I have an open-door policy,’ he said. ‘And I have no problem telling my fraternity brothers that they need to turn around and get out of my office if they come to me with something ridiculous.’

Agusto also said her outside life would hold no bearing on her professional one.

‘I have no relationships other than business with previous people,’ she said. ‘I wouldn’t even have to worry about it because it’s only business relationships.” ‘

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