Student Trustee and Undergraduate Student Government presidential elections are now open on Desire2Learn, and Tuesday evening the candidates took one last chance to make their platforms clear.

The debate, sponsored by the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute, allowed trustee nominees Adrian Miller and Kane Hudson, as well as USG presidential nominees Cameron Shulak and Christopher Wheetley, to respond to pre-written questions as well as questions from the audience. Both sets of candidates sat for 30 minutes of questioning.

The trustee portion included responses to issues such as:

Transparency between the SIU Board of Trustees and the SIU community.

Miller said it’s critical the student trustee come back to his or her constituents to inform them to the greatest extent possible. Hudson said his experience going back to the dorms to inform them what happened at USG shows his ability to communicate with his constituents.

Miller said it’s important the trustee knows the matters pertinent to the board.

“The board is about policies. It’s about issues that affect students’ pocketbooks. It’s about the programs,” Miller said. “When it comes to the student activities like who’s playing at Springfest, they’re gonna laugh in your face.”

During the student question portion, the candidates were asked their specific plan for providing transparency to students. Both Miller and Hudson focused on student apathy. While students have access to trustee documents, they can be apathetic to a degree and may not pursue information that doesn’t concern their interests, Miller said.

Hudson said students don’t come from an apathetic generation, they just don’t always understand what’s going on. While he was asking for signatures for his candidacy, some students he asked didn’t know what the board is. The candidates agreed it is important to use every avenue available to disseminate information to the student body.

Ensuring the student trustee represents the student body’s true interests

“You see me in a suit and tie up here,” Miller said. “(but) I’m a student. I go to class, I have to pay my rent, sometimes eat Ramen noodles and on the weekend sometimes have a beer. I’m a student. I can relate to you.”

Miller used this example to show why he believes he’s qualified to represent students — he wants to work statewide to ensure every student has a degree, he said.

Hudson said experience can be a double-edged sword, and questioned at what point someone begins to relate with a different group than his or her constituents.

“When you go into the Board of Trustees, you can be surrounded by it,” he said. “It’s slightly harder to connect with students and you’re always run by administration. At a certain point, you have to wonder if you’re so friendly with the administration, how much longer (is it) before you become the administration?”

Later, the candidates were asked why they were more suited than the other to be student trustee. While Miller said his southern Illinois roots qualify him, Hudson said his central Illinois perspective can bring fresh ideas to the community, as the university’s present trajectory isn’t good, he said.

Hudson once again said prior experience could get a student farther from their constituents and more concerned with business as usual — he hopes to bring a fresh perspective to the board.

“From day one you will not elect an administrator,” Hudson said.

But Miller said he is not an administrator and would hate to think his constituents think of him as one.

“Last time I checked, my bank account it says about $8,” he said. “If I was an administrator, I probably wouldn’t be running for this job right here, and for one that doesn’t pay.”

The USG portion included responses to issues such as:

Representing the true interests of the student body

Both candidates said they want to create more meetings with constituents. Shulak said he would sponsor town hall meetings for students to come out and express their concerns.

“If we don’t know what changes the students want to make, then we’re not doing our job,” he said.

Wheetley said he would like to implement listening lunches, something he has seen Chancellor Rita Cheng sponsor effectively. He would ask different RSOs to send notice of the meetings to members or faculty.

“You can open up a floor and invite anyone and everyone to come, but a lot of times posting a flyer somewhere, you’ll get very low attendance,” he said.

Wheetley said he would not select who receives an invite, but the act of reaching out to individual students may encourage participation. Shulak said he was concerned the plan would not provide accurate representation across the campus.

“The true interest of the student body isn’t represented by a select group of individuals,” Shulak said. “The true interest of this student body is represented by each and every person who wishes to have their voice heard.”

Wheetley wants to ensure the USG office is always staffed. There have been several times he found the office empty when he went to speak with someone, he said.

“I would guarantee there is at least an executive branch member, a senator serving office hours or a student employee always there to listen and be a representative of USG if a student comes to speak with us,” he said.

Working and communicating with Greek life

Wheetley said although he is not a part of Greek life, he was impressed with the Inter-Greek Council meeting he attended and the amount of support he saw from the Greeks at the softball game versus Illinois State Sunday. Shulak is a part of the Greek community and emphasized Greeks contribute more than 50 percent of documented services hours SIU students complete.

Shulak said he would not give Greeks more importance than any other group on campus in order to treat every group fairly, but would make sure the importance is not understated.

“I would make sure that we do foster the Greek community, and we do make sure that the university is supporting them, so that they can continue to have an impact that’s felt far beyond themselves,” he said.

Wheetley said he would like to use the Greek process to help students who may not be interested in Greek life.

“Obviously the Greeks are doing something very right, and I would be interested to know just what that particular element is, and try and incorporate that in our other RSOs that are non-Greek, but just as important here at SIU,” Wheetley said.

Voting on D2L ends 4:30 p.m. Thursday.

Karsten Burgstahler can be reached at [email protected], on Twitter @kburgstahler_DE or by phone at 536-3311 ext. 254.