Only one student attended the official Student Association candidate forum Sunday night in Shaffer Auditorium.

Aysha Seedat, the only non-write-in candidate running for SA president, was the only candidate allowed to be present, despite a field of four write-in candidates challenging Seedat. Phil Kramer, who is running uncontested for SA comptroller, was also a part of the forum. Seedat and Kramer, a former columnist for The Daily Orange, answered around 15 questions posed to them by the moderators, despite only one student being in the audience.

A major goal in Seedat’s campaign, she said, is to advocate for an increased role for the student liaison for the Board of Trustees, the president of SA and the president of the Graduate Student Organization. These three people are currently only allowed to sit in on meetings and are not allowed a vote on the Board of Trustees.

“It’s nice to be able to sit on the meetings, but if we could actually have a voice and influence change that would be better,” Seedat said.

The candidates also answered questions posed to them by the one student who attended, Danielle Reed, a junior broadcast and digital journalism and Spanish dual major.

Reed asked specifically about a point in Seedat and Hong’s platform that called for safe spaces to talk about social justice issues and whether just creating those spaces was enough to spur change from the administration.

“It’s really important to have a close relationship with administrators, which I have, and to be able to be frank with them and tell them when we’re having the same conversations over and over and nothing is getting done,” Seedat said in response.

Reed also asked how Seedat feels about her being the only student who showed up.

“Obviously I do wish that more students were here and able to hear my platform, but I think Jane and I are doing a really good job of talking with a lot of different organizations on campus and having one on one conversations with students,” Seedat said.

Write-in candidates are not officially recognized by SA and therefore were not allowed to participate in the SA-sponsored forum. There was a lot of confusion about who could participate in the forum or if the forum would happen at all, Seedat said.

University-wide elections begin Monday and run through Thursday. Students can vote on MySlice.

Published on April 12, 2015 at 11:09 pm

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