The University of Florida is bracing itself for a tense student body election cycle with yet another split ticket full of impassioned students ready to do whatever they can to bring the university to its fullest potential.
On Tuesday, the executive tickets for the university’s two parties, the Gator party and the Change party, met for a lively debate just a week before election day.
The Gator party’s ticket is led by Olivia Green, who currently serves as the UF senate president, running for the student body president. Her running mates are Clara Calavia for student body vice president and Nyla Pierre for student body treasurer.
The Change party’s ticket is led by Faith Corbett, who currently serves as the minority party leader in senate, for student body president. She is running with Kacie Ross for student body vice president and Jonner Delgado for student body treasurer.
The two parties have a history of not seeing eye to eye in any aspect of student government, though tensions are particularly high between the two every Tuesday in the senate chambers. This debate was no different and started with an opening statement from Gator party’s Clara Calavia who highlighted her own achievements briefly before listing the ways that the Change party has allegedly lied to and failed the students it represents.
She ended on the note, “That party is more concerned with taking credit than taking action and making noise.” This was a sentiment that was repeated multiple times by Gator party during the debate.
The Change party, however, began on a different note. Faith Corbett’s speech highlighed the accomplishments of her running mates and her party, then moved to explain that she believes that the Change party has failed, especially in the senate chambers, because of intervention from the Gator party and a refusal to work together.
Eight questions were then asked over the course of an hour, four to Change and four to Gator, each accompanied with two rebuttals. Though every person on stage was given the opportunity to speak and rebut any points made by the opposite party, it became clear that while the Gator party candidates worked in tandem to take down the Change party’s claims, the Change party’s ground was held solely by its presidential candidate.
Many important issues were discussed Tuesday night, but emphasis was on a few ticket items. Arguments arose about plans for budget changes, food insecurity for students who work on campus, the Accent Speaker program, and the executive teams’ plans for working alongside Ben Sasse.
When discussing President Sasse’s arrival and the roles both parties have had in his welcoming, Corbett said, “At this point, he is our university president, and we must accept that, but we should also challenge the way that he is listening to students. In terms of not being readily available to students, not being accessible to students, and turning students away at the door. I think that’s one thing to address in terms of those ideals that kind of clash.”
The Change party has openly expressed its discontent with the election of Ben Sasse as president of the university, going as far as calling for the impeachment of current student body president, Lauren Lemasters, after her decision to elect him and even protesting the day of his arrival on campus. At the same time, the Gator party has spoken out about disagreeing with Lemaster’s decision but has been working alongside Sasse since his first day at UF.
Another big issue discussed was the 24-hour Marston library plan, which both parties have taken credit for and butted heads about. While the Change party claims that it was its own senator, Grace Shoemaker, who did the research, legislation writing, and presenting of the issue to the senate floor just to be rejected by the Gator party, it was Lemaster’s who resolved the issues in the executive office in the end.
Marston has not had 24-hour libraries in years due to the Senate, which was Gator party run at the time, deciding to not resign the contract after resolving that the library was not used during those hours enough to warrant it. This has been a platform point for the Change party for multiple election cycles, but since its resolution is being claimed as a Gator party win due to Lemaster’s role in the process and rejection of Shoemaker’s help.
The library is back to 24-hours as a trial research period and it remains in the air who is to thank for this resolution.
While the speaking was split between the Gator party’s candidates, it became evident that their answers were going to stick to the same formula: defend and divert. They repeatedly found ways around the direct questions asked and instead diverted to the things they have done in the past and the things that they believe the Change party has done wrong.
This was juxtaposed with the Change party’s strategy, as it came prepared and ready to provide sufficient responses, but that responsibility fell solely on Corbett’s shoulders. Her running mates were short and safe with their few responses and had little to say when their lack of qualifications were brought to light by the Gator party. It was even pointed out that Delgado had applied to work on Gator’s campaign only two weeks prior to announcing his candidacy.
The closing statements remained true to each party and ended with compelling statements from both Green and Ross.
Green ended the night with, “We won’t try to turn students against each other by fanning the flames of division and hatred.”
And Ross ended the night with, “Promises were made but students were betrayed… Allow my running mates and me to show you what it means to value actual tangible change.”
There are many compelling arguments that stuck out from both sides at this debate and should be revisited before election day. The debate is available to stream on UF’s student government Facebook page and is recommended before students cast their votes on Feb. 28 and March 1. The locations, times and resources for candidates can be found on the UFSG