Eating club aid, gay marriage rouse candidates' passions at debate

The seven candidates for USG president sparred in front of nearly 50 students outside Café Vivian in a debate last night. The exchange became heated at times, as students described how their terms would differ from each others' and the administration of current president Leslie-Bernard Joseph '06.

Will Scharf '08 — the only candidate with no USG experience — called the current state of affairs in the USG "unacceptable."

"Student interests are just not being heard," he said. "Students get emails from the USG and just straight-up delete them."

In response, Joseph spent several minutes reading off a list of USG accomplishments — ignoring the protest of debate moderators — and asked Scharf "how [he] could say the USG isn't in touch" with student needs.

Chris Willis '07 also suggested that the USG needed to communicate more with students. He plans, if elected, to routinely go door-to-door to elicit students' individual concerns.

In another tense moment, Alex Lenahan '07 accused other candidates of marketing his plans as their own. After Tom Brown '07 promised to bring wireless Internet to Firestone Library and to convert Campus Club into a student social and study space, Lenahan said that he had already taken action on these issues.

"I've already sent out emails about wireless in Firestone, and I've worked on getting student access to Campus Club," Lenahan said.

He explained that he was the first among the presidential candidates to approach the University about making Campus available to students.

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"The only way students would lose," Lenahan said, "is if Campus turned into another Notestein [Hall]," which formerly housed the Writing Center.

The issue of expanding student financial aid packages to fully cover the cost of joining an eating club also roused candidates' passions. Jeremy Johnson '07 said that as a member of Ivy Club, he would have a unique advantage in tackling this issue.

"The University won't give aid for bicker eating clubs because the 'big three' bicker clubs [Ivy, Cottage and Tiger Inn] are reluctant to participate," Johnson said. "As a member of one of those clubs, I am in a position to influence those clubs' grad boards."

Brown expanded on the aid issue, discussing proposals to allow students to divide an 18-meal plan between a club and the four-year residential colleges. He subsequently proposed to extend financial aid to all eating clubs — including bicker clubs — before the four-year college option becomes available.

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Scharf said: "If [the University] forces kids to buy a meal plan at a residential college, we will have enough kids leaving the Street to close another club."

The same-sex marriage referendum, set to appear on the ballot this weekend, was another controversial topic.

Freddy Flaxman '07 said he didn't believe the referendum did not fall within the appropriate role of the USG. In response to an audience question about what "litmus test" would be used to distinguish campus issues from so-called national issues, Flaxman pointed out that any group of students can trigger a referendum if they gather 200 undergraduate signatures.

"That is the litmus test, if individual groups can mobilize that [number]," Flaxman said.

Carol Wang '07 put forth on several occasions her vision of uniting groups on campus — what she called the "big-picture" topic in the campaign.

"I'm running for campus unity," Wang said. "I want to foster three relationships — the one between upperand lowerclassmen, racial and ethnic groups and relationships between socioeconomic groups."