Presidential candidates for Student Senate debated their platforms Tuesday night to a standing-room-only crowd.
Almost 100 attendees showed up to hear Zainab Kandeh of the Action ticket, Jordan Ballinger of One and Megan Marzec of Restart debate in Walter Hall 145.
Ballinger, who was the first to address the crowd, announced that his ticket’s ambitions will include addressing rape culture and implementing a program of “consent education.”
Marzec, meanwhile, focused on restructuring the senate and implementing what she called a more “participatory model.”
“The rules that are in place, the way Student Senate is currently structured is … to oppress us,” Marzec said.
She also called the current senate body, “irrelevant, elitist, embarrassing” and criticized Ohio University.
Kandeh said she wants to increase senate’s transparency and interaction with other students by extending Alden Library’s hours, increasing dining hall options and launching a student-run fundraising program for scholarship money.
Marzec passionately disagreed with the fundraising program.
“It’s not the responsibility of the oppressed to help the oppressed,” she said. “It’s the responsibility of the oppressed to take down those who are oppressing them.”
All parties agreed that change is needed in the current senate.
“I don’t think it’s a body right now where people feel comfortable,” Kandeh said. “Ideas don’t flow freely.”
Ballinger, whose ticket includes the most candidates currently involved in senate, said his members would bring “new perspectives” to the body.
The current senate, Marzec countered, is an “out of touch and powerless student body” that is often used as a career advancer.
Increasing interaction with other students and protesting the way senate is structured are ways to address that problem, Marzec said.
“We need to make sure the entire body is doing its job, not just the three leaders,” Ballinger said.
Students can vote for the Student Senate positions April 17 between 8 a.m. and 7 p.m.
@CarolineBartels
cb536511@ohiou.edu
