By: Khalil Farah
Here at UGA, we are certainly in for an exciting Student Government election.
Wednesday night Charles Hicks from the reDefine Party debated Will Burgess from the UGA Ignite Party. The debate was moderated by Jason Flynn of the Red and Black, and hosted by WUOG. In a quirky fashion, the hosts would take breaks in between asking relevant questions to ask game show, trivia questions from categories such as “fat celebrities,” “romantic comedies,” or “fantasy novels.” This suited the debate style. Taking place in an intimate radio recording room, the two candidates clearly were having fun running for office and making their views heard.
In what many expect to be an especially contested election, the animosity between the parties was non-existent. Laughter was abundant before, after, and even during the debate. Both candidates took time at the beginning to praise their opponents; “It’s safe to say, something good about the elections is we have become good friends and will be after the elections take place,” said Burgess during the debate.
However, despite the friendliness between the candidates, both parties outlined very different views of the role SGA would play under their administration.
The reDefine party came across very much as SGA outsiders. Their platform contains the overarching philosophy of increasing student involvement. One of their central proposals entails giving 20% of the SGA’s voting power back to the students. Hicks believes the students should have more of a direct vote in the legislation of SGA, “Right now 100% of the vote comes from the [SGA] senators. They were only voted on by 4% of the student body in the last election, we just don’t think that is representative.”
In contrast, the Ignite party believes the senators are still the best people to be in charge of conducting the business of SGA. Burgess, however, agreed that the senators need to be more accessible to the student population. He advocated establishing a committee with the sole task of outreach to the student body. In addition, he demanded the senators do more to make themselves available; “I will make that pledge. We will dedicate ourselves to face to face conversations [with the student body]”
Hicks and Burgess also parted on how they would approach controversial issues that face the SGA each year such as UGA’s coal power plant and HB59 (which would ban undocumented students from attending Georgia’s public universities).
Burgess adamantly defended SGA as an organization that needs to remain apolitical. He pointed to situations in the past where SGA went too far in taking a stand on a divisive issue. In regards to the smoking ban passed by previous administrations, he reiterated his vote against the ban, saying, “SGA went too far, it tried to go somewhere the student body was not united about… I don’t think it’s SGA’s place to speak when there is such a divisive and contentious issue.” Rather than take a stand on a particular issue, Burgess reasserted that “SGA should favor the organization rather than the cause,” and try to help them fulfill their goals on their own.
Hicks claimed that his inclusion of the student body in the actual voting of a particular issue would prevent the SGA from straying from the student’s wishes. Moreover, reDefine outlined their plan for a weeklong program, which they call “The Big Event.” The week would include speakers, films, and other awareness activities which could be co-sponsored by SGA and various student organizations. Along with awareness, student groups could use the week as a recruiting event, allowing students to join groups related to causes that interest them. Increased funding to the small club allocation fund would further the expansion of these student organizations. Hicks promised to increase the fund from $10,000 to at least $12,000.
Both parties agreed wholeheartedly for the need for greater transparency in SGA’s proceedings. Hicks promised that reDefine would create a blog, “Day to Day with SGA,” which would post the issues facing the SGA and allow students to input. Burgess agreed with Hicks on this issue, and embraced easier access to the SGA’s proceedings.
There are two other parties also in the race: UGA YOUnited and The Blueprint presidential candidates, Sean Malone and John Bowden, respectively, will debate each other next Wednesday on WUOG 90.5 FM at 6:15.
