ASuop Hosts Presidential Debate
On Wednesday, March 2nd, the ASuop Election Committee hosted a debate for the 2022-2023 presidential candidates. Elections Coordinator, Dustin Brakebill, moderated a discussion between president and vice presidential tickets, Sahila Shah and Ismael Gomez of the Shah/Gomez platform and Angel Zhong and Brooke Tran of the Zhong/Tran platform. Each of the candidates were given two minutes to respond to the prompted questions. Unlike traditional debates, candidates were not given opportunities to respond to their opponents’ answers. Additionally, attending audience members were explicitly barred from asking their own questions during the debate. The debate was broken into four parts: a joint question period, presidential questions, vice presidential questions, and then a return to joint questions.
For the initial joint question period, candidates began with their opening statements, introducing themselves, their qualifications, and their overall visions for the presidency (for more information about each platform, check out our articles on the Zhong/Tran ticket and the Shah/Gomez ticket).
Brakebill proceeded to ask about their individual motivations for joining ASuop, their greatest collegiate achievements, and their priority action items. All of the candidates opened up about their experiences as marginalized students and their passion for widespread institutional change.
Zhong discussed her accomplishments as the ASuop Director of DEI and the positive responses she’s received from faculty after DEI workshops. Her main goal is to set up a Student Advisory Board made up of students representing marginalized, nontraditional, and underrepresented student communities with all members being compensated for their time. Tran brought up her transformational experience with “lollipop leadership,” a hands-on type of leadership that refers to Drew Dudley’s “Leading with Lollipops” Ted Talk, and how it inspired her to work towards wide-scale change. In consideration to the lasting impact of the COVID-19 quarantine, Tran aims to work with faculty to create more hybrid-style and virtual options, so students aren’t punished for health-based restrictions.
On the opposite side of the stage, Shah talked about her desire to utilize privileged positions of power to improve institutional representation by creating focus groups for international and nontraditional students. Her main goal is to improve community outreach in Stockton by performing educational workshops that cover the city’s rich history. After talking about his and Shah’s involvement in Eberhardt’s DEI council and his role as an Involvement Consultant for the Student Activities Center, Gomez stated that they “both understand what it’s like to be a leader” and that they’re “not ones to really throw titles out,” and are dedicated to hands-on leadership. His main goal is to improve school spirit and increase attendance at on-campus events.
For president-specific questions, Brakebill asked about the president’s contribution to the success of student government and what they would do if they could only accomplish one thing while in office along with their plans to use the cabinet to accomplish it. Zhong pushed the need to connect with students one-on-one to accurately amplify their voices to the highest levels of UOP leadership. Her main goal for office is to establish an ASuop website outside of Pacific Pulse that makes student government as transparent as possible by making “regular meeting minutes, passed legislation, monthly spending reports, [and] resource lists” accessible to students. Conversely, Shaw aims to improve cross-departmental relationships by hosting retreats and team-building events and establishing. Her main initiative is to alter a universal syllabus to explicitly accommodate cultural and religious practices and erase the associated guilt felt by marginalized students.
The vice president candidates were asked for their perspectives on the vice president’s role in ASuop’s overall success and their plans for Senate organization. Tran emphasized connection with Registered Student Organizations (RSOs) and ensuring student voices are heard in school-specific council meetings. After citing her personal practices in organization and time management, she stated that she will plan out terms beforehand with the Senate, advocate for ad hoc committees, and promote a manageable work culture. “I’m big on intentionality and that carries over to the plans the Senate and I will create for the school year,” Tran stated. Gomez believes the vice president’s role lies in hands-on support. He plans to organize the Senate by getting to know them each individually and serve as their supporter.
The final round of joint questions entailed a one-sentence platform summary, reasoning for why voters should support either side, and closing statements. Zhong and Tran emphasized how their platform is interconnected as “you can’t address mental health equity without addressing DEI, you can’t address sustainability without making it accessible.” They plan on maximizing student money and transform the ASuop admission fee into an investment, in addition to reimagining what it means to be a Pacifican after one-and-a-half years in quarantine. Shah and Gomez pushed that they would focus on students having fun, feeling represented, and feeling heard. As he sat adjacent to the Asian American, first-generation, marginalized women running against him, Gomez told the audience to “just look at us. We’re definitely a very diverse ticket… We understand what it’s like to be marginalized, we understand what it’s like to not have opportunities, we understand what it’s like to fight for these opportunities, we understand that it's a big fight in order to get these opportunities, we understand the power of these opportunities.”
In closing, Zhong cited Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and her dedication to creating a space where students can self-actualize. Tran opened up about her identity as a Vietnamese American, first-generation student and talked about the correlation between her work experience and her vision for ASuop. Shah commended student potential and reiterated her dedication towards representing student voices. Gomez thanked everyone for attending and implored them to vote in the coming elections.
Voting ends on March 11th, on TigerLink.
