The candidates for the following Associated Students executive positions debated at 12 p.m. on March 10 at the Conrad Prebys Aztec Student Union. The Daily Aztec gave candidates 1 minute for opening statements, answers and closing statements.
Vice President of University Affairs debate
June Kim said that she would use her position to impact SDSU by forming a bond among the university.
“What I would bring for my position is to make the school feel more of a united front and bring every students’ ideas into play,” Kim said.
Gareth Lintt said the implementation of the Student Success Fee was a big issue that SDSU students had to face on campus in the past year.
“I’ve heard a lot of complaints from San Diego State students about not getting the classes that they want, and I think that needs to change,” he said.
In response to a question regarding her stance and plans to vote on divestment, Andrea Byrd acknowledged the complexity of the issue and suggested an approach to address it.
“When things like divestment hit my desk, it’s important for myself to be educated on the issue, and also that any person who is going to be voting on this is educated as well,” she said. “There have already been pushes for open forums that will be coming up in April, and I want to promote those.”
Jolly Mateo suggested promoting student involvement in A.S. by working with the college council of different colleges.
“PSFA could be meeting with (College of) Arts & Letters or the College of Business (Administration) to create innovative ways to get involved in different things,” he said. “We can involve all the different colleges together and create different ways to make sure that everyone is being included.”
Vice President of Financial Affairs debate
Dominic Bilotti said that the purpose of his role would be advocating for A.S. money to be used for all student organizations on campus.
“We have a lot that is left over at the end of the semester that just goes into reserves,” he said. “We don’t want that to happen. We want to make sure you are getting the funding that you deserve and that it’s not being wasted.”
When asked about his feelings on the Student Success Fee controversy, Jason Peretz explained it is important students know about how much money is in the fee, where the money goes and how to obtain the money for use within student organizations.
“I’m going to implement a strategy for students to know exactly those three things by having it on the A.S. student website, so that people can go there and use it as the main platform of communication of the executive officers,” he said.
