On Monday, the Student Government held its student body presidential and vice presidential debates.
The debate for vice president began with a small personal biography for mechanical engineering and computer science sophomore Donavan Brown and political science junior Antonio Romo. Brown was unable to attend, only Romo was present for discussion.
When asked how he would interact with Black student organizations, Romo said he would trying to grow student government’s connections to those organizations.
“It has been a long process and [Student Government has] been meeting other organizations, but I want to make sure that we are having these communications,” Romo said.
The Student Governement presidential debate began with an introductory biography for the three candidates: political science junior Olivia Alexander, criminal justice junior Nicole Collins and urban and regional planning sophomore William “Will” Moore and their opening remarks.
While both Alexander and Collins have past experience in Student Government, Moore does not, something he has made a large part of his campaign.
All three candidates said they wanted to implement policies to protect the local environment, with Alexander supporting a recycling initiative at tailgates, whereas Collins and Moore both supported giving more money to environmental services.
“I would like to increase the environmental services fee because it is $1,” Collins said. “It has not been increased in 20 years and I feel like we should be trying to take better care of our environment.”
All three candidates said they want to increase student engagement in Student Government. The previous student government election saw the winning presidential candidate, Kiersten Florence, receive 259 votes.
“I’ve had people tell me when when they found out I’m running for student body president, ‘That’s awesome, but what does it mean? What is Student Government?'” Moore said. “I think the size of the audience here is a clear indication that students don’t know about student government.”
The most debated issue was how Student Government should handle relations with Texas State Athletics, especially following the controversy involving the university’s signing of Jayden de Laura. Collins and Moore favored holding athletics accountable, whereas Alexander focused on maintaining a working relationship with the administration.
“I believe that disengaging from athletics would be an extreme disservice to the student body,” Alexander said. “Communication leads to conversation and that’s what creates productive change.”
After the prepared questions ended, the public asked questions to the presidential candidates.
Questions ranged from clarification on previous statements, to addressing a rumor that Alexander and Brown were campaigning for the university to get a live bobcat for a mascot, something Alexander quickly denied.
