Student Association presidential and vice presidential candidates squared off Monday night in the first elections debate of the spring, discussing campus mental health resources and diversity initiatives.

The debate was moderated by Sophia Faram, chair of SA’s board of elections and membership committee.

Kaitlyn Ellsweig, a junior economics and political science double major; John Jankovic, a sophomore political science and psychology dual major; and Ghufran Salih, a sophomore information and technology major, answered questions about their campaign platforms and detailed actions they want to take to address sexual assault at SU; the university’s diversity; and Invest Syracuse, a $100 million academic fundraising plan.

All three presidential candidates stressed diversity as a major platform in their respective campaigns, highlighting different initiatives they want to implement. Ellsweig said that, as part of her administration, she and Ryan Houck, her vice presidential running mate, would want to better broadcast the existence of SA and its diversity affairs committee.

Salih said that she and her running partner Kyle Rosenblum want to hold the administration accountable for promises they made, such as hiring a permanent chief diversity officer. That hire is listed as a goal by the Chancellor’s Workgroup on Diversity and Inclusion.

Jankovic and his vice presidential candidate, Serena Fazal, said they want to build a coalition by partnering with organizations such as University Union, U100 and heritage organizations on campus to attend each other’s events as a strategy to increase diversity among various groups.

The candidates also highlighted initiatives they thought were strong under the current administration, President James Franco and Vice President Angie Pati, including a focus on mental health resources and disaster relief.

Salih and Rosenblum said they wanted to build off of Pati’s idea of creating an on-campus peer listening service, allowing students to call or text a support line anonymously about problems they may be facing.

Mental health issues are important to Houck and Ellsweig, she said, based on past experiences, and they want to promote SU to hire more counselors and improve on-campus support for students facing mental health issues.

Jankovic and Fazal, who were both volunteers on the SA relief trip to Puerto Rico over winter break, said they wanted to create an initiative for “international advocacy,” promoting not only disaster relief, but also awareness.

One of the first issues Houck discussed in his opening statement was the need for transparency from the university in regard to Invest Syracuse, which includes a $3,300 tuition premium that will affect first-year and transfer students starting at SU this fall. Current students will be grandfathered into the program and won’t have to pay the extra tuition premium. Fazal also said that one of her and Jankovic’s core platforms was transparency within SU’s administration.

The candidates all agreed that sexual assault was a problem on campus. Rosenblum, a co-chair on SA’s health and wellness subcommittee, said that he and Salih would request and release a sexual assault and relationship violence report, similar to an SA mental health report released a few semesters ago, which he said prompted the school to hire more counselors.

While Rosenblum has some experience in SA, Salih does not, but she said that they try to use an “unwritten” platform to hear what the students want from the university. Ellsweig and Houck said that as students with no formal SA experience, they both provide outside perspective. Jankovic touted his previous time serving multiple positions in SA over the course of three semesters.

Published on April 2, 2018 at 11:31 pm

Contact Catherine: ccleffer@syr.edu | @ccleffert