The Oracle
T H U R S DAY, F E B RUA RY 2 2 , 2 0 1 8 I VO L . 5 5 N O . 4 0
w w w . u s f o r a c l e . c o m U N I V E R S I T Y O F S O U T H F L O R I DA
Final debate highlights differences in tickets’ platforms
Student body president and vice president candidates had one last debate to showcase their platforms on Wednesday. Monday will mark the beginning of voting week, giving students a chance to vote for the cadidates of their choice. ORACLE PHOTO/ CHAVELI GUZMAN By Jesse Stokes M A N A G I N G
E D I T O R
The Marshall Student Center ballroom was set with elevator music and banquet hall chafing dishes Wednesday night to welcome the audience for the debate among the three tickets running to fill the leadership of the Executive Branch. As the guests filed in, current Student Body President, Moneer Kheireddine and Vice President Shaquille Kent acted as familiar faces to greet them. Their opponents dressed in their coordinating pink attire, Gabby Cruz and Scott Tavlin. The curveball ticket, comprised of Peter Corsa and Julius Jackson, also welcomed their supporters and other onlookers.
The crowd roared at the start of the debate with the formal introduction of the Cruz ticket, the Kheireddine ticket received a moderate amount of support and the Corsa ticket received the quietest reaction from the audience. The guest moderator, Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections Craig Latimer, opened the debate by asking each of the tickets to introduce themselves with an opening speech before moving onto the first question, which was in regards to platform priorities. Jackson struggled at first to discuss how students’ concerned are voiced through their platform point, before saying that the major component of their platform
revolves around encouraging students to attend and becoming further engaged with athletic events. Cruz, however, said the focus should be put on assisting victims of sexual assault and harassment, who may have to sit next to their assaulters in class or at the sporting events Jackson mentioned day-today. “There are people on this campus who have to sit next to the person who sexually assaulted them for the entire semester,” Cruz said. “There are people on this campus who won’t go to a football game because they are afraid that they are going to run into their rapist. There are people on this campus who do not actually feel advocated for by
the university. To me, that is not good enough. “We are a preeminent university. A preeminent university supports their students, protects them and truly advocates for them even in a situation such as sexual assault. If we want to take that seriously, then I think Student Government should champion it… We closed the gap on Latino student success, we closed the gap in black student success a USF. We need to close the gap on sexual assault on campus at USF as well.” This was not the only time sexual assaults would be mentioned during the debate, as Kheireddine weighed in on the matter too, saying that safety is a critical component for the
year to come, with a particular focus on sexual assaults. “Advocacy on behalf of survivors of sexual assault (needs to be improved) and specifically, what we are trying to do is working without USF administrators to pass something known as the Safe Transfer Act,” Kheireddine said. “What this will allow is if any individual in our institution is currently undergoing Title IX investigations, they will be required and noted on their transcripts when they try to transfer to another institution that that is currently going on.” Kheireddine said this act needs to be put in place because statistics
n See DEBATE on PAGE 3