Courtney Barr

Story #3 391

Campus, Student Government

On Feb. 20, Indiana Wesleyan University’s Student Government Association hosted its presidential debate in the student Commons to inform students about the candidates running for the SGA student body president, and vice president and other open positions.

The event began with the presidential candidates sharing how their personal qualities qualify them for the presidential position. The candidates were asked several questions about the responsibilities they would have in office. The questions were designed to provide the audience with a picture of what each candidate exemplifies. 

The candidates running for SGA president are Alex Salmons, Chloe Tatom and Aaron Scott.

Rebekah Hoffaman, Erica Brown and Lainie Holland are running for vice president.

Each candidate shared ideas regarding how to improve communication between SGA and IWU students. Salmons and Hoffman plan to make a remind text system. The system will be similar to the IWU alerts students receive now.

Tatom said the candidates prepared for the event by formulating answers for a list of topics that the candidates may be asked questions from.

Later on, both the president and vice president were asked questions by the IWU students.

Micah Withers, an IWU student, said, “The remind thing is a good idea the only problem is getting people to sign up for it.”

Tatom and Brown plan to keep the notifications the same through announcements done in chapel. Tatom said, “I believe the system set in place works well, but I think the student government meetings could be more welcoming. When I get elected, I want to plan to have the meetings in one of the banquet halls to accommodate more people.”

Scott and Holland also plan to initiate more communication to IWU students about SGA in Chapel.

Hoffman said, “I believe another problem IWU faces is the lack of handicap accessible doors and bathrooms. I spoke to a student who suffered an injury and she told me about the lack of help from IWU.”

If IWU students missed the presidential debate on Feb. 20, SGA recorded and uploaded the presidential debate to SGA’s Facebook page.

The polls will open on Feb. 27 for the IWU student to vote for SGA student body president, vice president and other open positions. IWU students can vote in the Barnes Student Center Mall-way, on IWUs review or at iwusga.com.