Students will have the opportunity to question Student Association’s uncontested presidential and comptroller candidates at a debate Wednesday night.

The debate, in Huntington Beard Crouse’s Gifford Auditorium at 7 p.m., will follow the same format it would have if presidential candidate Neal Casey and comptroller candidate Jeff Rickert had competition, said Andrea Rosko, SA Board of Elections and Memberships chair.

At this point, there are no known write-in candidates for either president or comptroller, said current SA President Jon Barnhart.

‘It’s important to see who’s going to be the next leaders of your campus and make sure they’re working for what you want them to be working for,’ Barnhart said.

Rickert will start by introducing himself, explaining his platform and answering questions. When Rickert is done, Casey will follow the same format. Students attending the debate will have the chance to write down questions for each candidate, and Rosko will ask the questions collected on their behalf. Rickert and Casey will have up to an hour each to respond.

There are certain questions that cannot be asked when candidates are contested, and these guidelines will stay the same even though the candidates are not contested, Rosko said. This includes questions intended to be harmful or about unrelated personal matters.

After the debate, candidates running for a position in the assembly will have a chance to introduce themselves if they choose to. Instead of the current assembly voting as it normally would throughout the term, the candidates will be placed on the online ballot for the student body to vote, Rosko said.

‘While we only have one candidate for SA president and while we only have one candidate for SA comptroller, we will have competition for Whitman,’ Barnhart said.

Each school has a number of seats to fill in the assembly, including the Martin J. Whitman School of Management, which has seven open seats and nine candidates running to be representatives. These candidates include students who have never been in SA before, Barnhart said.

Students can vote for SA president, comptroller and assembly members on MySlice from Nov. 8 to Nov. 11. Ten percent of the student body must vote for the election to be declared over. If 10 percent of the student body does not vote, the election will be extended until midnight on Nov. 12, at which point the election will be valid regardless of the turnout.

lgleveil@syr.edu

Published on November 2, 2010 at 12:00 pm

Contact Laurence: lgleveil@syr.edu | @lgleveille