Bret Alexander. Jovany Bahena-Rosario. Scott Lund. Julio Otay. One of these four men will become the next student body president at Weber State University.
Kicking off election week, the WSU Student Association presidential candidate debate will be held March 11 at 11:30 a.m. in the Shepherd Union Atrium.
The four candidates participating in the debate are all currently in student leadership positions. Alexander is Leadership Vice President, Otay is a member of the Hispanic Area Council, Bahena-Rosario is the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences Senator and Lund is the College of Business & Economics Senator.
The debate will cover a variety of topics regarding candidate platforms and the future of WSU. In previous debates, dilemmas brought up to candidates have included budget use, WSUSA community involvement and student voting.
Following the debate, voting will open March 12 and end March 14 at noon. Results of the election will then be announced during “Weber’s Got Talent” on March 15.
Unlike other schools, which typically allow candidates to campaign for a certain amount of time before elections start, WSU permits students running for president to only begin hanging fliers and posters on the day of the debate.
“You want to have the campaigning and elections as short as possible,” Lund said. “I think they are a big distraction not only for people that are running but everyone else on campus.”
Because the debate is scheduled the Monday after students come back from spring break, some of the candidates worry that lack of promotion will result in a low student turn out.
“Elections have been under-promoted, and I think the debate just fits under that,” Lund said. “We have so many students that would be excited to do things, but they don’t know about it. I have talked to countless students that had no idea that the elections were coming up.”
In order to spread the word, WSUSA plans to use social media to keep students informed during election week.
Voting will take place through weber.edu/vote. For further information, visit https://www.weber.edu/StudentInvolvement/election.html.
