The time has come for Ohio State’s Undergraduate Student Government elections, and on Friday, the presidential and vice presidential candidates visited The Lantern newsroom to discuss their platform topics and other popular issues.
For this year’s election, it is a battle of the sexes, with two males against two females. Presidential candidate Micah Kamrass, a third-year in political science and economics, and vice presidential candidate Brad Pyle, a third-year in the Fisher College of Business, are opposing presidential candidate Jordan Davis, a fourth-year in political science and leadership studies, and vice presidential candidate Ashley Sinram, a third-year studying international studies.
Campus Safety Concerns
Both teams addressed the importance of student safety and both want to work to revamp Crime Alerts and Buckeye Alerts, which are “opt-in” systems that send city and campus emergency updates through e-mail and text.
Davis and Sinram want the alert system to be available on Buckeye Link, so students can easily sign up for the system and manage different features.
Davis, current USG vice president, worked this year with the Buckeye Action Network, a USG program that allows for discussion of political issues that affect OSU students. The candidates want to expand this program to allow more information about crime and security to be given to students.
When campus emergencies occur, “bits and pieces of information get distorted, and it creates kind of this panic and fear,” Sinram said. In regard to the Buckeye Action Network resource, Sinram said,
“The opportunity to give clear-cut information to students that request it is something that could definitely improve the information about security on campus.”
Davis and Sinram also want self-defense classes to be accessible to all students, and they want to better publicize the public safety Web site to inform students of crime tips.
Kamrass and Pyle want to initiate an alert system that students are automatically enrolled in but can opt out of. They also want to change the program to immediately alert students to avoid certain areas, if needed.
“Safety should be the No. 1 priority for students here on campus, and we should do everything we can to communicate the safety issues with them,” Kamrass said.
In their campus safety platform, Kamrass and Pyle also want to add more emergency blue lights in the off-campus area and educate students on theft-prevention strategies.
OSU Campus Smoking Ban
When President E. Gordon Gee visited the Lantern newsroom April 6 to discuss university issues, he said he is in favor of a smoking ban and would approve it if a proposal were brought to him. The candidates discussed their stance on the issue.
Kamrass and Pyle said if a policy came forward, they would make sure there are primary areas of campus where smoking is not allowed, but they would maintain areas on campus where smoking can still exist.
“I think that smoking is something that a lot of students are passionate about one way or the other,” Kamrass said. “What’s important is that the student government find a way to advocate for all students’ interests.”
During the 2006-2007 school year, the smoking ban was an issue USG discussed. Davis said her stance then and now is that she is very much against it because it is the freedom of the students to be able to smoke on campus.
Students are “mature enough to know where and when it’s appropriate to smoke, and they should be able to outside,” she said.
Library and Study Space Availability
With the opening of the William Oxley Thompson Memorial Library and the Ohio Union, the candidates all agreed it is important to maximize the use of the new facilities and make sure students have available space for studying.
The Kamrass/Pyle ticket wants to push for Thompson Library to be open 24 hours. College students have very different schedules, so it’s important that they are able to study in Thompson Library no matter what hours they keep, Kamrass said.
They also want to form a stronger partnership with the Columbus Metropolitan Library to increase resource availability to OSU students.
However, Davis/Sinram feel differently. They think having Thompson Library open 24 hours would be great, but they understand the money to accommodate the extra staffing and other expenses isn’t available.
Instead of focusing on library study spaces, Davis and Sinram want to utilize study spaces that OSU already has in the RPAC, residence halls and classrooms. It’s about being creative with the space we already have on campus, Sinram said.
STOP Program Concerns
Both teams want to make changes to the Stop Teenage Opportunity To Purchase program, an underage drinking law enforcement project administered by the Franklin County Sheriff’s office.
As USG vice president, Davis said she has been working with county sheriffs, Columbus police, university police and students on changes to the STOP program.
“We’re on the brink of a change,” Davis said. “I can tell you that right now.”
Davis and Sinram do not want mandatory incarceration to be an element of STOP. They want citations to take the place of mandatory incarceration, and they want STOP program officers to wear uniforms. It’s not a breach of student security that officers are not uniformed when working for the STOP program, Davis said, “it is simply an understanding when they walk up on our property, I know who is walking onto my property.”
Kamrass and Pyle said the STOP program has very few good elements. They want to eliminate mandatory arrests and have arrested students held and processed on campus instead of being taken downtown and placed in a holding cell.
“We want to make sure police are prioritizing protecting students instead of arresting them,” Pyle said.
USG Campaign Budgets
For the USG election, the presidential teams can each spend a maximum of $2,000 each. However, when running with a slate of senators, which both teams are, there is a total spending cap of $3,500.
Both teams said private fundraising was done to raise money. The candidates asked family members, close family friends and other groups for financial support. The candidates said instead of holiday or birthday presents, they asked for campaign support instead.
Davis and Sinram broke their $2,000 up equally and both raised $1,000, while the senate members contributed their own money for the slate.
“No student money, as
ide from our own student money, goes to paying campaign expenses,” Davis said. “It’s not just our time and effort and what we’re doing, it’s our financial funds that we’re putting into this as well.”
Each team distributed its campaign money into promotional and visual items. Davis and Sinram used the slogan “Keepin’ It Fresh,” a take off the Doublemint gum logo, and purchased mints to distribute to students. Their money also went to t-shirts, banners, fliers and chalk.
Kamrass and Pyle said their most expensive item was the t-shirts they gave to students. They also purchased pens that display their logo and Web site.
The USG Election Governance Board requires that both teams fill out a financial ledger to make budget information accessible online to all students.
One Accomplishment
If only able to accomplish one platform, Kamrass and Pyle would want to make sure they listen to students. Some of their platforms back this up, such as having office hours on the Oval, walking around residence halls and dining halls and visiting all student organizations on campus.
“We’re running for president of student government, not president of the United States, so it’s important that we make sure first and foremost that we’re listening to students,” Kamrass said. “There’s no way we could represent all of them without first listening to them.”
Davis and Sinram would choose student safety on campus, although they said it’s a lofty goal and has many variables involved.
It’s unfortunate that we have to worry about these types of things, where students can’t feel safe on or off campus because we do have a great university and it does detract from that sometimes,” Sinram said. Student safety is about “creating a home,” Davis added.
Additional Issues
Both teams want to work to grow the Greek community, improve the USG Web site, help with textbook affordability and initiate more recycling around campus. Davis and Sinram want to work to purchase recycling bins for off-campus student homes. Kamrass and Pyle want to make recycling pickup available in the off-campus area.
Although maintaining 36 athletic teams is costly, and it would eliminate athletic financial problems, both sets of candidates feel it is important to continue to support the Athletic Department and keep all 36 teams.
“We have the best athletic department in the country, and having 36 teams, which is the most in the country, is so important to that,” Kamrass said.
Kamrass and Pyle want to work with student athletics to provide increased transportation to athletics events, reduce student e-mails from the Athletic Department and provide parking passes for marching band members, whereas Davis and Sinram, the first female team to run in USG election history, want to create an OSU Women’s Network that would support mentorship programs and professional networking opportunities for women.
“We have worked very closely with a lot of women at this university to ensure that we’re advocating for the correct things,” Davis said.
For more information on the candidates, visit votejordanandashley.com and weareallbuckeyes.com.
The USG Presidential – Vice-Presidential Debate is at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in the U.S. Bank Conference Theatre in the Ohio Union.
Elections take place Thursday and Friday.
