Eight candidates running for Student Government president and vice president spoke on campus issues at SG’s annual debate on Thursday, including Title IX, and SG transparency. 

The four campaigns, EVOLVE, RISE, Scott-Rovere and F*** Around and Find Out, answered 10 questions from moderator Madison Latiolais, chair of the Debate Commission. 

Campaigns were allowed 30-second rebuttals if recognized by the moderator, but none of the candidates took advantage of the opportunity throughout the debate.

Title IX

All candidates agreed that while the Office of Civil Rights and Title IX has taken steps in the right direction at promoting diversity and inclusion on campus and improving the university’s handling of sexual assault cases, there remains much to be done. 

FAFO presidential candidate and architecture senior Harris Quadir said that they want to start “preemptive trainings within the student body” to focus on prevention. They also said they would fight for more funding for the Title IX Office. 

“The funding is not there and that’s something that we absolutely plan on fighting for at the state legislature,” FAFO vice presidential candidate Matt McClure said.

Scott-Rovere vice presidential candidate Isabella Rovere said she’s worked closely with the Title IX Office while in SG. Rovere believes the office has done a great job but that there is always a “need to improve,” and would like to see more funding for the office. 

President of the EVOLVE campaign, political communications junior Lizzie Shaw, said it’s hard for students to access Title IX resources. One of the campaign’s initiatives is to create a Title IX scorecard so that students can track Title IX progress. 

RISE presidential candidate and mechanical engineering junior Colin Raby agreed the office is heading in the right direction. He also claimed that the office hasn’t fulfilled the Husch Blackwell recommendation that the office hire two Title IX investigators. 

However, the Husch Blackwell report recommended at least two full-time Title IX investigators, which the office has. The only unfulfilled recommendation is “regularly measure climate and effectiveness,” which will be checked off in spring 2023, according to Jane Cassidy, interim vice president of Civil Rights & Title IX.

SG Efficiency

An odd moment in the debate, all candidates declined to answer two questions from the moderator.

When asked who their ticket would endorse for the next speaker of the Student Senate, all candidates declined to answer because they did not believe it was their place to influence students’ choice on the matter.

Candidates also declined to answer who their ticket would rank second on their ballot. 

Presidential candidates were asked if they intend to serve on the Board of Supervisors. Scott, Shaw and Raby said they do and emphasized their trust in their vice presidential candidates. Quadir said he would like to meet with the student body presidents of LSU’s other campuses before making a decision, but still would like to serve.

Candidates were asked what they think the biggest issue impacting the efficiency of SG is.

Quadir said the branches need to work together better and that SG shouldn’t take itself so seriously. 

“We need to do things more on a level that’s not so serious,” Quadir said. “Everything is so seriously done in Student Government. People tend to argue and fight so we need to break down their barriers and work together.”

Scott-Rovere presidential candidate Devin Scott said SG needs to emphasize student outreach and be more involved with student resources.

“As student body president, your first job is to the student body and your second job is to be CEO of Student Government,” Scott said. “I’m more concerned with the everyday, day to day struggles the student body and with the inner workings of issue and issue policies.”

Shaw and her running mate, psychology junior Nicholas St. Mary, said the divisiveness among branches is a key issue that affects the efficiency of SG.

“It’s very hard to get three different branches all on one page, which is something that we have really tried to implement in our campaign,” St. Mary said. “One of our key values is collaboration, we want to make sure we are collaborating with not only our staff but the student body as a whole.”

Georgia Peck, the RISE vice presidential candidate, said their campaign plans to streamline outreach with social media to ensure students get the information they need from SG. Raby also stated that divisiveness and petty politics also affect the efficiency of SG.

“Our name is Rise and part of that is because as a senator I’ve seen some of the petty politics that happens with Student Government,” Raby said. “We’re gonna rise above the petty politics and focus on just implementing effective action that actually impacts our students.”

SG Transparency

All candidates agreed that keeping websites up-to-date and increasing student outreach are important steps in making SG more transparent. 

St. Mary said Shaw has done a lot of work updating the website and they plan to make themselves more available for students to reach out to them.

“We send a whole form out for a concert to see who we want, but we don’t send out forms to see what they want from us as part of initiatives,” St. Mary said. “So sending out forms like I think would be super impactful to let more students have their voice heard.”

Rovere said she and Scott believe taking initiative to reach out to students and establish connections with them is important. They also plan to do a monthly student body update in the form of an email to keep students informed about what is going on SG matters.

“There is no way for us to get that feedback without going after it first and showing that we actually care about their concerns and its not just the Student Government people determining us rather the student body connecting with us,” Rovere said.

Peck said her experience as a journalism major helps her understand how crucial transparency is between SG and student media. Raby said engagement on social media, keeping the website up-to-date and meeting students where they’re at by speaking to different student organizations and asking what they need will increase transparency.

FAFO believes transparency can be improved by using the scrolling banners on myLSU and TigerLink, as well as a weekly newsletter with sections like “this week in senate” and “what’s up in exec” that students can subscribe to. They would also like to collaborate with LSU to broadcast an email once a semester about what has been happening in SG.

The moderator asked Rovere how she will handle being vice president of the student body and president of her sorority, Alpha Phi, if elected. Rovere said her leadership will translate into both roles.

“I have used my leadership experience in Alpha Phi to learn three core values of being a leader and a team leader: empowering, communicating and delegating,” Rovere said. “Those three qualities that I have learned of being a team leader of the Alpha Phi’s executive council, I will also apply leading alongside Devin as student body vice president.”

The moderator asked Hariss and McClure to address rumors that they are both planning to study abroad next year, to which they confirmed the rumor, yet Hariss said he would reconsider if elected. McClure said they “will be here for the students” if they win.

“If elected to this position, it’s something I would seriously consider and reconsider doing, but you take things one step at a time,” Harris said. “Today I’m here, tomorrow I might not be, so it’s something I can’t really answer at this moment.”