TXST student body presidential debate addresses recent issues, highlights of the debate

By Felicity Guajardo & Emma Peters 

Director of News and Culture and Assistant Director of News 

 

Many issues surrounding the well-being of students were at the heart of this debate, especially recent news about political vandalism on campus buildings, the response of Bobcats First to a controversial photo and presidential candidate Jordan Hunter’s leadership ability went into question in the public forum. The debate occurred on Monday evening in the LBJ Student Center Teaching Theater starting around 5:30 p.m. These are the administrations on the ballot:  

• Bobcats First Alliance – Abby Myers (Presidential candidate) Nikola Markovic (VP candidate) 

• Shooting for the Stars Alliance – Jordan Hunter (Presidential candidate) Emma Stampley (VP candidate) 

• Independent – Carter Lawson (Presidential candidate) 

Independent candidate, Carter Lawson, advocated for more student involvement outside of student organizations, like flag football fundraisers and dances. Lawson resigned during opening remarks and endorsed the Shooting for the Stars Alliance as he felt their response to the graffiti last Friday was more proactive in addressing student concerns. 

“I saw another campaign go immediately to the streets, ask students how they felt about that and how they would like to see change reflected in their university and day to day lives,” Lawson said. “For that reason, I’m resigning my candidacy, I’ll be supporting Mr. Jordan.”  

Both campaigns addressed the vandalism incident on social media. Bobcats First invited students to write their complaints on a message board in the Quad to further address student concerns. Shooting for the Stars went out to ask students on campus how they felt about the vandalism and posted student’s responses on Instagram.  

Before Lawson resigned, the vice-presidential candidates, Nikola Markovic and Emma Stampley, debated over questions about implementing administration initiatives, mental health resources, sustainability, transparency in safety policies and awareness of student support services and campus activities.  

 

Highlights from the VP Debate 

Markovic emphasized his background as an international student from Serbia and that coming to Texas State has motivated him to make a seat at the table for international students.  

“I came here alone, but I’m running a platform empowering voices that previously haven’t been heard,” Markovic said.  

Markovic says that better marketing about student health services is needed as well as making more time slots available at the Student Health Center for appointments. The online mental health service Timely Care used by the Student Health Center was also under scrutiny as Markovic says in his experience students are waiting too long to have access to care.  

In the public forum, a question about long-term access to mental health care was asked to both candidates.  

“A big thing I would like to see is an introduction to a long-term mental health solution where you have a person available at any given time, 24/7. If you have just one person on emergency call to be there, I think that will change many things,” Markovic said.  

Stampley serves as Director of Sustainability for Student Government and is focused on student engagement and effectively marketing campus resources. Stampley says she dislikes the Timely Care service due to only offering free services for a limited number of visits.  

“I definitely agree that Timely Care needs some updates, needs some changes, but also highlighting that the counseling center on the 5th floor has so many amazing resources,” Stampley said. 

Stampley’s response to the public forum question about long-term mental health introduced an idea of outside partnerships.  

“So, I would say one of the ways we can do that is partnering with local health administrations to see if we can get that sort of long –term care for Texas State. You know, Texas State buys licenses for Microsoft, why can’t they do that with potentially a psychiatric care facility or a therapist office,” Stampley said.  

A big question that has been at the forefront of both campaigns is reaching beyond the most vocal of students and increasing student engagement. Both candidates are going about increasing overall campus involvement, outside of organizations, in different ways.  

Stampley says that many niche organizations cannot be found on the Bobcat Organization Hub, so connecting with smaller organizations would be the next step to improve student engagement. Markovic wants to increase attendance at smaller sporting events and partner with Rally Cats and Hellcats to create new traditions.  

The last highlight from the VP debate is about transparency on safety policy where each candidate spoke about the presence of UPD on campus. Both Stampley and Markovic agreed that speaking with university officials about the concerns of the student body is the best way to ensure that students get answers about the reason for a policy and create a dialogue.  

 

Frequently discussed: The ICE Photo  

A key point of conversation during the debate was an incident involving a controversial photo of a senatorial candidate dressed as an immigration customs officer. The candidate was initially part of the Bobcat’s First campaign, however, Myers and Markovic issued a statement just before the debate announcing they had parted ways with the candidate. 

The photo was frequently spoken about in topics involving safety and increasing minority voices. 

Hunter gave hard criticism about the photo saying that the debate needs to be looked at through a lens of integrity.  

“I do have to ask why it took so long to make a statement about one of your senators dressing up as ICE, right?, I do have to ask why you would know that this photo exists and not make a statement earlier, right?, because you spoke about it at the NAACP meeting,” Hunter said.  

Myers said that in order to make an informed decision and public statement they needed to conduct a full investigation.  

“We do not need to be adding fuel to a fire to a situation that is appalling and does not represent the values of this campus, nor does it represent the values of our campaign which is why we dismissed the senator that you are talking about from it,” Myers said.  

“You can’t run into Kelly’s office when you’re upset about something, that students are upset about something, and make this grandiose statement without having information behind it.”  

In a rebuttal by Hunter, he says that the language Myers used in the debate to respond to the photo was dismissive.  

“I wanna say language of ‘let’s not fuel the fire,’ that’s language that’s used to silence people,” Hunter said.   

Highlights from Presidential Debate 

“Amplifying voices” was a phrase said by both candidates as both campaigns said they strive to connect with minority groups, international students and the smaller voices in the student body.  

Hunter questioned Myers’ claim to amplify students voices due to the response of the grafitti on campus.  

“It is one thing to post a statement saying, ‘hey, we are going to amplify voices’. I think it’s another thing to just go and do it,” Hunter said. “Student Speaks, as you’ve seen my platform, is street interviews where a student government official would go out and ask students how they feel about a certain topic on campus.”  

Hunter said that this was his idea in response to the graffiti as he noticed it came from a place where students felt unheard.  

“It comes from a place where students feel they can’t get to the administration, right, they can’t get their voices heard. I think the quickest way to do that would be going out and amplifying their voices through social media,” Hunter said.  

In Myers’ rebuttal, she said that they received great information about how students were feeling from the message board and were addressing issues from students coming to them directly.  

Candidates then focused on connecting with multicultural groups, international and non-traditional students.  

 Hunter strives to engage more with Student Involvement and Engagement to set up more events with multicultural groups and have information offered at social events about these organizations. Myers says the biggest issue they have faced with international students is the housing process and funding to conduct research at the university, which is a gap they want to work on.  

In response to questions about how they plan to improve student safety and well-being both candidates have ideas to incorporate student relations with UPD.  

Hunter believes that introducing campus resources and what to be cautious of, through UPD presentations at New Student Orientation (NSO) would be beneficial to reach incoming freshmen and prepare them. Myers disagreed and said that having UPD come to NSO would strain their bandwidth of patrolling on campus and instead wants to introduce voluntary social events for students to connect with UPD. Myers also wants to increase lighting on campus, enhance Bobcat Safe Rides and increase mental health resources.  

Myers said she also is passionate about creating a pre-law track at the university and establishing LSAT workshops. 

“I want this institution to be one that makes lawyers because that is where we start to make effectual change in our communities once we leave San Marcos,” Myers said.  

Myers said that revamping University Seminar courses has potential to incorporate financial literacy, sustainability values and connection with peer mentors.  

Hunter likes the idea of establishing a pre-law track but wants to focus on the University Seminar first to effectively reach majority of the student body and explore the meaning of “networking” with students.  

“College is 100% not about what you know, but who you know,” Hunter said.  

The last question that was addressed by candidates was about sustainability practices on campus. 

 Myers feels that introducing drought-resistant plants to lower water consumption would help preserve the river and resources. She also said that upcycling, donating items left at dorms during moveout and partnerships with Sustainability Squad are initiatives they are going to work on.  

Hunter’s plan in approaching sustainability is to host regular campus clean-ups by student organizations that want to help. However, Myers criticized this initiative by saying that they cannot rely on students to increase sustainability. In Hunter’s rebuttal, he said effectiveness is also missing from the Myers’ campaign in parking services policies.  

 

Any last questions? 

The public forum raised follow-up questions about Hunter’s leadership as the Director of Freshman Council in Student Government and many of the members leaving from council. 

Hunter said that since Freshman Council is a new addition and it has been a learning curve.  

“When freshman council came to be it had absolutely zero structure, and I will say on my part I definitely could have organized a little better,” Hunter said.  

A member of the freshman council also asked about the lack of communication of his “stepping down” of his role as Director of Freshman Council. 

Hunter responded by saying that he is not stepping down but was asked to not attend council meetings while he was campaigning due to conflict of interest.  

Myers was asked how she plans to regain trust of Hispanic and international students in the aftermath of the ICE photo, to which she said that she will be vocal about immigrants’ rights. 

“My focus on that, is gonna be, to regain trust with the community, is gonna be to continue to do things that show that our actions mean something. That we are continuing to condemn issues that happen like this on our campus,” Myers said. “…which starts with handing out those know your rights cards so when you have to have those hard conservations when those people do show up on our campus, we can be ready to counteract that.”  

Voting is opening tomorrow at 8 a.m. and will take votes until Friday at 8 p.m. for all cabinet seats. Please visit studentgovernment.txst.edu to cast votes.