Student Government Experience of Slates
Empower
President: Jes Wade has one year of senate experience.
Vice president: Gabrielle Bunn has two years as a senator and is currently on executive cabinet as secretary of justice.
Treasurer: Connor Saum has no SGA experience.
Secretary: Bekki Kimani has no SGA experience.
Safety
Strive to educate students about emergency procedures to reinforce their sense of security.
Inquire about holding campus-wide tests of procedures with follow-up surveys to gauge student satisfaction.
Investigate the viability of making adjustments to campus bus routes.
Establish an additional bus route during midterms and Finals Week.
Diversity
Advocate for equal treatment of non-traditional and international students.
Look into integrating international students into other residence halls aside from Shively Hall and Studebaker Hall East.
Strengthen SGA’s partnership with the Multicultural Center.
Develop a multicultural council that meets regularly.
Leadership
Implement an open door policy that promotes growth and collaboration among both students and faculty.
Partner with Excellence in Leadership to develop an Emerging Leaders Retreat.
Showcase Frog Baby’s significance to students.
Introduce an annual scholarship open to all students who exemplify the essence of Frog Baby — scholarship, goodwill and tradition.
Tradition
Maintain Ball State customs. Continue sponsoring Countdown to Kickoff, the Homecoming Village and Benny’s Birthday Bash.
Revitalize SGA’s reputation.
Be an executive board that truly is “students for students,” empowering peers by investigating student-based issues and ideas for positive change.
Cardinal Connection
President: Nick Wilkey has two years as a SGA senator, one year on the Campus Council and University Senate as a representative.
Vice President: Carli Hendershot has two years as a SGA senator.
Treasurer: Sidney Staples has one year as a SGA senator.
Secretary: Rahissa Engle has no SGA experience.
Embark
Keep the library open 24 hours during Finals Week with food and snacks available on every floor and Charlie’s Charter services offered throughout the night.
Collaborate with the Office of Orientation to start a new tradition for incoming students: Create a Ball State “B” on the football field.
Hold a mixer during Welcome Week for students to meet the university president.
Create an application for incoming freshmen to receive sponsorship for summer bridge programs.
Engage
Partner with Second Harvest Food Bank to start an on-campus food pantry.
Partner with student organizations to hold community service events twice a semester.
Partner with Excellence in Leadership to hold an Emerging Leaders Retreat.
Partner with student organizations to spotlight a leader once a month.
Envision
Hold an On-Campus Student Employee Appreciation Week.
Display Ball State banners year round to beautify campus.
Update the environment of Bracken Library.
Return to the original rules of the Ball State T-shirt Trade In.
Bring the NOH8 campaign to Ball State.
Commit
Issue a monthly public executive report on slate progress.
Work with administration to reevaluate emergency preparedness.
Create an SGA Vote Box on the website for students to vote on key topics.
Hold a monthly on-campus event to stay connected to students.
Tonight at 9, the Student Government Association two slates will have the chance to prove why their slate deserves to represent the student body.
Although there are two slates, the debate will still be in Pruis Hall, where it was moved last year to accommodate three slates and an increased student interest.
For the first time, the full slate debate will feature a panel of students and faculty members who will ask questions in addition to the moderator.
Payne Horning, debate moderator, said the panel will serve to make the debate more like a town hall presidential debate.
“SGA has student limitations, [but] it is a tiny model of how things work in the real world,” he said. “When you are running for this kind of power, you have a town hall debate where people who are affected by your policies come up and say, ‘Why do you deserve my vote?’”
Candidates will field questions from the debate coordinator as well as questions from Unified Media and members of the panel.
Horning said he looks forward to the interaction between the slates and questions from new sources.
“Former debate coordinators gathered their questions from multiple sources,” he said. “But this year, we are really emphasizing more voices than ever, getting them from more sources.”
Jes Wade, Empower’s presidential candidate, said her slate prepared for the debate by going over possible questions and examining the experience of Gabrielle Bunn, vice presidential candidate, in Thursday’s vice presidential debate.
“I’m excited to see how we are going to come and how prepared we actually are,” Wade said. “I know we can put in all [the] time and effort possible, but tomorrow is where we will actually shine and show people what we have.”
Wade said her slate members compliment each other.
The slate was created in a leadership studies minor class when Wade, Bunn and Connor Saum, treasurer candidate, talked about running together.
“We weighed pros and cons of running and if we could put together a platform students would really like,” Wade said. “Then we went out and talked to our constituents and put together a platform.”
Nick Wilkey, Cardinal Connection presidential candidate, said he feels confident about his slate’s chance in the debate.
He said he does not feel that he dominants the slate as the presidential candidate, but that each member shares the stage together.
“Out of all four of us, no one is dominant,” Wilkey said. “[We all] have a big say in what we do. All of us are equal. We’re excited because we all know everything about our platform. All of us can answer any of the questions.”
He said they prepared with the slate’s debate coordinator and have talked with administrators about Empower’s platform points. He said Cardinal Connection wants to be knowledgeable about its opponent’s proposals.
“[I chose the] three most qualified students on campus,” Wilkey said. “Not because they were part of organizations, but they represented themselves as qualified candidates.”
Alex Sventeckis, SGA elections chairperson, participated as part of the Fusion slate last year in the full slate debate in Pruis Hall.
“I think it will have the same feel to it [as last year],” he said. “But with two slates, there will be more time to devote to platform points and details and what each slate would do if elected.”
Sventeckis said there have been no campaign violations yet this year. Last year, there were violations the very first night of the election.
“It’s a happy surprise,” he said. “It all looks good on SGA. It’s a very solid campaign, focusing on the issues instead of the other stuff that gets in the way.”
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