Student Senate debate today at noon in SMSU

Starting at noon today, student senate hopefuls will be meeting in Parkway North in the Smith Memorial Student Union to debate the issues for the forthcoming elections. The debate, moderated by Portland State debate team member Seth Evans, will run until approximately 3 p.m., and will give students a chance to learn about the candidates and their stances.

The debate will be formatted similar to the presidential debates. Candidates will be given a one-minute introduction to provide an overall summary of themselves and their reasons for running. Subsequently, candidates will be given 90 seconds to answer each of a number of questions, determined by the number of candidates.

The final portion of the debate will be devoted to answering questions from the audience, giving students the opportunity to pose their own issues and develop a full sense of the candidates. Chris Richter, head of the Portland State debate team, intends to keep the process as natural as possible.

“We like to let debates form themselves based on what students think are the important issues without imposing preconceived notions,” Richter said.

The major role of the student senate is to ensure that the rest of the student government is functioning properly.

As the largest single body of the student government, the senate provides the most direct representation for students, as the tradition has been for each senator to act on behalf of a particular school or college associated with the university, such as the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences or the School of Engineering.

In the past, the senate has been viewed as ineffectual, often unable to meet quorum, which is the minimum number of members needed to conduct the business of the group.

The senate consists of 25 available seats, some of which are currently empty from the previous term. Kyle Cady, vice president of ASPSU, aims to fill these seats, and maybe even have a competitive election, unlike previous terms where there were more seats than students running.

“To run is to be a part of a community that cares and wants to see a real difference on campus” Cady said. “It’s about quality of people, not structure.”

Starting in the fall of 2008, the senate made some changes, including offering monetary compensation, in order to create interest in senate responsibilities as well as draw more students into running.

By giving student senators the ability to choose outreach campaigns, the position has grown from the standard check on other branches of student government into a creative project where students can tackle relevant issues such as on-campus childcare, amendments to the student orientation program and possibly even turning a portion of Broadway into a “green street.”

“It’s one thing to sit in a room and advocate, but it’s more important for students to see improvements,” Cady said.