Potential senators square off over plans for office
The second Student Senate election debate asked candidates for college senators about the specific actions and innovations for which they would work if elected. The three tickets squared off on the three questions moderators posed:
What’s the biggest issue facing your students in your academic college, and how do you plan on addressing that?
Fight’s College of Arts and Sciences senatorial candidate Bryce Graves started the conversation by advocating for availability and accessibility.“I want to make myself available,” he said. “If I’m not known, then it’s not possible to be there for the students.”Hannah Graber, the Honors Tutorial College senatorial candidate for Voice, advocated for better mental health handling, due to the particular stress the Honors Tutorial College (HTC) places on its students. “We are high achieving, and we are diverse, so mental health and community on campus would be particularly important,” Graber said before extending her statement to include the importance of inclusion, diversity and mental health across all the colleges.Green Light’s HTC Senator candidate Alli Evans said "creating more collaboration between grad students for thesis work and other projects" was a way to fix one of the biggest issues facing HTC, being that all HTC students are required to create a thesis and could learn from graduate students.
How will you seek feedback from the students in your academic college?
Nalania Rodgers, Voice’s Scripps College of Communication candidate, said she would reach across the internal schools within the Scripps College and utilize the technology available.“It’s definitely a very large college,” she said. “Sometimes it’s difficult for word to get out, so one of the things we have in Schoonover is screens on every single last floor.” She said she would put her face and availability on the screens. Sam Tornow, Green Light’s Scripps College of Communication candidate, said his network of contacts would help spread the word about initiatives and send information directly to constituents.“I will have my contact information on screens in Schoonover,” he said, echoing Rodgers.https://twitter.com/GreenLight4OU/status/844327880695959552Bryce Graves, the College of Arts and Sciences candidate for Fight, said he would reach out to his students and make his name known through emails, posters and general availability.“You can’t (work on solutions) if you’re not known by the students, so just being there for them, being able to come talk to me, or just shooting me an email and just making it easier for them to talk to me,” he said.
If a prospective student came up to you, how would you sell them on your academic college?
Alexander Welsh, the Center for International Studies senatorial candidate for Voice, spoke to his college’s versatility.“Our college is open to crafting the classes that you take, crafting the major almost to a specific way that you want it to be,” he said. “It is so open to you, that it is a great opportunity.”Evans said while HTC’s educational offerings are fantastic, the best part of the college is the bonds she formed. “They will support you in whatever academic endeavor you want to do,” she said. “But what sold it for me is you become like a family, and you have those resources to fall back on.”Alex Rado, Fight’s College of Business senatorial candidate said he would talk about the opportunities the school offers.“Coming to college, I never took a visit to OU,” he said. “I didn’t know OU had the 14th best business school in the nation … I didn’t know we had the number one sales program, the number one sports marketing program. That kind of thing comes from OU, and you can’t find it anywhere else.”The next debate will be held on March 27 at 7 p.m. in Porter 103. It will feature the candidates for each of the greens.