*Live Blogging* THE DEBATE

8:07-Closing Statements (2 minutes)

Both candidates thanked their running mates and the audience for submitting questions, and urged you to vote in the elections on MyUNIverse a week from today, February 24th.

I've had enough of this so far today, stay tuned tomorrow for my reflections on the debate and a feature from CHAS Senator running for reelection, Aaron Friel. Good night and Happy Mardi Gras!!



Audience Q Part 2

Q: If you don't win, is this "all-or-nothing?" If you lose, will you still be involved in NISG?

KR- Katie plans on applying for the Director of Governmental Relations if not elected, has always been passionate about local and state politics. Renae notes that there are open Graduate senate seats, and would seek one of those.

JT- Tanner plans on staying involved in various student organizations. Jared has a passion for student government, will apply for positions in executive branch.

Q: JT, having worked in the past with large established organizations, how will you get new organizations off the ground?

JT- Tanner-It's important for large orgs to still have a small organization feel, want them to feel involved.

Q: From External Relations Chair Connor Brakeville: Ordinance on renting was passed last night limiting the persons occupying rental properties. How will you work with the City Council?

KR- We have a director of local government outreach. We've had a student at every City Council meeting and its important to continue to do that. We were at the CC meeting last night and spoke, as did several other students and they want the CC to recognize that students aren't going anywhere. We want to work with the director to address other issues, such as the revamp of University Ave.

JT- Being present at CC meetings is critical. Furthermore, something we need to emphasize more is volunteering in the community.  

Last Q: Student organizations get 6% of Student Fee money, Athletics get over 50% of SSFC money. If elected, how would you address the disparity in line items?
JT, Chief of Staff was eliminated in a deal with Pam Creger, how would you fund that position?
KR, Women's Center, how do you plan to get the resources to run the Center?

JT- We want a Modified Chief of Staff position. Not interested in paying anyone to do this, want to get a passionate student leader who will volunteer to do this, and we're confident we'll be able to do this.

KR- We do hear often, "Why a Women's Center? our position is "Why Not? We're primarily focusing on women, but want this center to work with existing centers such as the LGBT center. We've met with several different entities to figure out a good place for the center and a way to offer an assistantship through the Women's and Gender Studies Dept. The center wouldn't be super expensive because it would serve as a hub for many services that already exist on campus.

Audience Questions

JT- ICC sounds great, how will we get students to actually show up? Progressive Coalition has struggled with attendance, how do you see ICC working?

JT- Start by talking to students when they register in the fall. We want a variety of student leaders to get involved. We understand this will not be easy. We're excited to begin the process. These meetings won't be lectures, but interactive instances to connect and colloborate.
We might not see tremendous buy-in at first, but think it's a good thing to start.

KR- Talk about Time Management Skills, especially as a Grad student? 

KR-(Renae)- Has been talking with advisors about her plan as a student, hopes that she could use this position to further her studies. (Katie), Renae's program is very flexible in terms of time commitments.

JT- If we're here a year from today and you're elected, what can we say we've done?

JT- Hope we've engaged on a meaningful level to collaborate. Meaningful level not simply attending, but contributing to organizations and being actually involved.

Q: From President Kevin: Reaching out to student orgs is hard, hard to get students to care. Confusion about what NISG stands for. How do you get students involved? (Both tickets)

KR- We're a good team in that, Katie as an insider can help with the details about what is currently happening in NISG. Meanwhile, Renae has a fresh perspective and can ask questions to students about what they know about NISG, if they've heard of it and can see the perspective from an outsider.

JT- We're passionate about engaging students. (Tanner spoke really fast and I couldn't catch much else). They mentioned efforts within RHA to get students involved.

Q: From Carl Reitz, Director of Finance: You will be, as President, chair of the Student Services Fee Committee, a budget of almost $3 million from students. President Ruud has expressed the desire to raise fees every year, where do you think fees should go?

JT- We want to see allocations going towards student organizations.

KR- Katie has been on this committee for the past year. Is familiar with the yearly increases and is currently working on it and they want to focus on using fee money going towards sustainability services. Every year every line item asks for more money and yes, student organizations are great, so the fee should go to NISG's allocation considering the contingency fund is almost out this year.

Q: Engaging Lower Cabinet Directors, how to hold them accountable, and how do you motivate them? (unpaid)

KR- NISG has a problem with accountability year to year. We want to meet with directors as much as possible, but they've talked to past directors and have heard that they lack direction. We want to provide more direction and tangible goals. Work with the Student Involvement Center staff to make use of resources.

JT- I haven't been paid as RHA President, so it's not about money it's about passion and students who care. What is critical is selecting good directors in the first place and meeting with them weekly to keep that relationship strong. We also want lower cabinet directors to work together and to hold meetings with the entire lower cabinet together.


7:30 Second Round Q&A
Q: How will you build upon the efforts of the current administration?

JT- Start by talking to Kevin and Paul, and really want to emphasize Panther Fridays.

KR- Transportation issues. We know what Kevin and Paul have been doing regarding Panther Shuttle, and want to expand the hours of operation despite how costly it is. Currently looking at other options to fund this program. They also want to expand the bike-share program that is just now getting off the ground by Kevin and Paul.


7:25 First Round Questions

This round had two questions: What will be your hardest plank to accomplish and what campaign goals are you most passionate about?

Hardest Plank

JT- Hardest will be engaging students, we think ICC is ideal to help mitigate this problem. Orgs are what make UNI home, so that is our foucs.

KR- Updating MyUNIverse. It has so many different players involved that it will take close collaborate with several university departments.

Passion

KR- Our first year council, embracing all kinds of first-year students: international, transfer, and non-traditional. We want to utilize the experience already on campus to have a comprehensive orientation for students.

JT- Engaging our students through establishing the ICC. We also want to have a video series that will update the student body and better publicize what we do.



7:17 Opening Statements

The opening statements mostly consisted of the candidates introducing themselves, the vice presidential speeches weren't too crazy.

The presidential speeches had more substance. Katie went first, and talked about her various experiences with different groups on campus and how visiting other campuses for conferences and competitions has helped her see how innovative other schools can be. Jared went right to his platform planks, talking about his inter-club council, continuing Panther Fridays, and how his experience in RHA will make him an effective leader.



7:02 

We're going to begin the presidential section with opening statements, from the vice presidential candidates first and then the presidential candidates. Each vice president will have three minutes and the presidential candidates will have five minutes. After that, we'll go into questions.

They're flipping a coin to see who goes first... Kate and Renae won! Renae will go first.


INTERMISSION

That's all for the Senate Candidates. While we have some down time, I've snagged Aaron Friel for a quick interview on his platform. Amber Rouse, executive editor of the Northern Iowan, is speaking with him now and I'll get the video up ASAP!

Until then, start thinking of questions for the Presidential Candidates! Tweet them to @NIonNISG or shoot me an email at coolingc@uni.edu !


6:47 CHAS

Just in time to answer a question, Sen. Abbie Shew seeking re-election made it up to the debate table. She mentioned bills she's worked on with other senators on a number of issues, including the Yik Yak posts, and hopes to work with Friel in For Real Senate in the future. She likes representing a diverse college like CHAS because she's a double major in a hard science and humanities, biology and philosophy.

Sen. Friel, head of the For Real Senate coalition, began by speaking about how he first got into NISG, through working in student organizations trying to get funding to hold events. He has a platform of "Freedom, Fairness and Food." He has been concerned by recent changes to UNI's sexual assault policy, from a panel approach to a single staff member, and hopes NISG can help change this policy next year.
Friel recently sent an email to the entire student body asking them to "blow up his phone" with messages to urge the City Council to not move forward with the rental law changes. His phone is still blowing up and he hopes to work with the city over the year to mitigate the changes and help students.

Sen. Upah, on the Campus Relations committee, hopes to work with For Real Senate over the year and was really happy to have a full Senate this year. She's hoping to get freshman involved in open seats and will be excited to have new students and their perspective.






6: 31 CBA

Maddie isn't here, so Nathan is reading her essay. I've compiled all the essays for the candidates, and have them linked by major in the top right part of the blog -> over there!

Candidate Massey wants to work with the college to assign advisors to every student and is looking forward to mentoring her other Senators should she be re-elected. She currently serves on the external relations committee. She mentioned her passion and involvement with United Nations on campus, and how she's actually going on a trip to a conference tomorrow for it.

Candidate Hinton introduced himself and expressed his desire to get involved in senate. He mentioned the platform by Aaron Friel addressing catering policies on campus and hopes to work with Friel to make it a reality (did he just endorse For Real Senate?). As he's learned about the current system with catering, he was disappointed by what the policies actually were. A Pi Sigma Epsilon, he's been exposed to lots of other things on campus, and hope groups keep collaborating in the future.

6:21 CSBS 

Here we have Candidate Parker starting off, answering a question by expressing his desire to get more out of the office hours Senators get. He's been disappointed in how he has yet to see a student come to him to talk about issues during those hours, and he wants to work to make those hours more useful.

Candidate Applegate talked about how at her previous university, women weren't as well represented, so she's happy to have this opportunity and to see lots of other women running.

Gabriella spoke about her path to studying political science and how now that she's been at the university for a few years that she's well-equipped to serve students at this point.

The loud machine at Chats keeps making people milkshakes and periodically it interrupts the debate. How lovely. Rumor is that the Union will relocate this into the Essentials part of the building in the future.


6:15 COE Candidates

Nathan has introduced the moderator and we all suffered some loud feedback but eventually the mic was fixed.

There's a scattering of students here in groups, it appears that we have also been graced with the presence of Lisa Kratz! Hi Lisa!

For the candidates that can't be here, Nathan is reading the Intent to Run essays. So far, that's Deciding Candidate Sarah Hofmeyer, as well as COE candidate Anna Kron.

It's kind of hilarious and awkward but for now the other COE candidate, Rachael Johnson, is fielding questions up on the stage alone with the moderator. She's handling it like a champ and things are beginning to run smoothly.



6:00 PM

Hey everyone! I'm going to try to live blog the debate as much as possible.

There is going to be a recording, set up by Commish Davis, to have the entirety of the debate up on YouTube shortly after the event so if you can't be here in person you can tune in on your own time.

As for questions, the moderators have prepared a few to get things started, but they're hoping to have questions submitted by voters like you! To submit a question to either senate or presidential candidates, be sure to tweet your question to @NIonNISG or send me an email at coolingc@uni.edu

The Union is starting to fill up and I think we're about to get started! Our moderator for tonight is Jordan Adam, a senior Communication major and RA. He'll be posing the questions and act as our master of ceremonies. Here we go!