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The Rice Thresher
Phone:
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by Meghan Miller Thresher staff
The candidates - Lovett College junior James Dallal, Wiess College sophomore Ricky Kalra, and Hanszen College juniors Jamie Lisagor and Gavin Parks, who are running together - answered questions from moderators Thresher Editor in Chief Brian Stoler and KTRU Station Manager Johnny So and also from audience members. Dallal, who calls himself the "people's candidate" because he has not been involved in student government but occasionally writes opinion columns for the Thresher, said, "It's time to step into the ring myself." "I think it's important that we do have critical voices on campus, that we do have people constantly questioning what the SA and what the administration are doing because only then will they be accountable," Dallal said. "I got tired of being primarily a critical voice and I want to actually get out there and implement some of my own plans." Parks and Lisagor focused on improving communication between clubs and the SA, promising to attend organizations' meetings. "We don't think that people should be forced to come to us in order to get their voices heard," Parks said. Instead of the regular SA meeting, the two plan to hold issue- and discussion-based meetings every other week, alternating with business meetings. Standard agenda items such as club approvals, committee updates and announcements would be restricted to the business meetings. "Things that need to be brought up over specific issues can be brought up in this environment," Parks said. "We can break up into specific ideas, specific groups where we can develop solutions for those." Kalra, Wiess SA senator and a member of the Martel College Founding Committee, agreed that issues often are not addressed sufficiently by the SA. Kalra thinks the president should make the SA more approachable for clubs rather than approaching the clubs himself. "They want a forum to be heard rather than me to be a liaison," Kalra said. Kalra said he wants to be a "universal facilitator" for minority groups, to encourage them to bring their concerns to the SA and to help students work with the SA Senate. "I don't mean by minorities blacks or Hispanics. I also mean athletes, any other group - Pride as well - that feel that they haven't had a voice in their [college] cabinet," he said. "I think a lot of them came [to Martel] because they wanted minority representation, diversity, where [Black Student Association] members are allowed to speak at their cabinets, ADVANCE members are allowed to advertise the Culture Fair." Lisagor said discrimination is "everyone's problem," and Parks said he would encourage people to bring issues to the senate and to lead facilitated discussions. They want to improve relations between colleges during Orientation Week by providing opportunities for students with similar interests to meet one another. Too much involvement in organizations, not the college system, might be to blame for the alleged discrimination and lack of diversity at Rice, Dallal said "The college system is one of the strongest protections we have of diversity and we shouldn't do anything to weaken it," he said. "I think it'd be much better if people identified a little less strongly with particular organizations. ... I think there's too much of a tendency right now for different groups to oppose one another and that's not good." Some audience members later defended strong organizations and said they help give students a group and an identity beyond that of "Rice student." Student interaction with administrators was also a prominent issue during the debate. "A lot of times we feel that it's students versus the administration, and I don't think that's the right way of looking at it," Kalra said, referring to the ongoing controversy over college cheers. "We students have certain goals and traditions we want to maintain at Rice and they have certain goals, and if we could meet halfway at times that would help us out a lot more. But we shouldn't give up our traditions." The candidates agreed that an acceptable compromise was reached after KTRU was shut down last December. The shutdown followed the station management's clash with administrators over the number of sports events to be broadcast. Not all candidates agreed with the administration's actions, though. "We want to hold the administration accountable for their actions," Lisagor said. "If Tuesday night they are freaking out about KTRU and Wednesday they shut down the station and Thursday they call us in and say, 'We made a big mess. Would you clean it up please?' the first thing that we're going to say is, 'Why didn't you come to us in the first place?'" Lisagor also said the SA Senate must be accountable to the students and that by working to represent the opinions of the student body rather than their own opinions, she and Parks would avoid becoming "puppets." Dallal said the president could maintain integrity by being wary of favors handed out by administrators. "It's quite easy for the SA president to become a puppet of the administration," he said. "The easiest way is to accept too many favors. A lot of people, when they accept favors from the administration, end up owing the administration. We do know that certain vice presidents for Student Affairs like to pass out a lot of favors to students." Kalra expressed a desire to improve the student-administrator relationship while representing the students. "Realize that [the SA president is] a bridge to the administration, a bridge with the students behind them," Kalra said. "We want to represent the students rather than represent the administration." Graduate Student Association President Elle Marie Schollnberger asked the candidates how they viewed cooperation between the GSA and the SA. "We don't share classes with them," Kalra said. "We don't share many of the activities. We do share one thing, though, and that's this campus. And with a shared campus, the issues are the same." Lisagor suggested that the SA view the GSA as a resource and that the SA encourage graduate student participation in an advisory capacity. "I think that first off, there needs to be more interaction between the GSA and the SA," Lisagor said. She also suggested that undergraduates look to graduate students, who were recently undergraduates themselves, for advice rather than always relying on help from the vice president for Student Affairs or the President. Schollnberger said she hopes the candidates will think about the relationship between the two associations. "Many issues affect all students on our campus," she said. "I hope the next SA president will recognize the strength of joint SA and GSA efforts." Parks and Lisagor emphasized what they think are the strengths of their combined candidacy. They said they planned to attend all meetings and functions together, and Parks pointed out that between the two of them, they have 27 available hours per week to meet with students. The two often used time left after their answers in the debate to mention other ideas. Lisagor said they want to make Lifetime Physical Activities Program credits no longer required for graduation. Students are currently required to complete two LPAP classes. Audience member Caroline Glendenning, a Hanszen freshman, asked if age and experience would be beneficial to Dallal and the Parks and Lisagor team. The three juniors agreed that, while a sophomore might have a great deal of experience, he or she would have even more after another year. Kalra, the only sophomore candidate, said his work on various SA committees gave him a significant amount of experience. All candidates said they plan to remain active in the student body if they lose the election. Kalra said he would run for Martel SA senator. Dallal said he would apply for a position on the University Council, which reviews and makes recommendations to President Gillis about curriculum changes and degree requirements and approves the academic calendar before those issues are brought to the faculty for decision. Both Parks and Lisagor said they would remain active in the SA-organized Leadership Retreat. Lisagor also said she wanted to create a divisional adviser for undecided majors. Roughly 30 students attended the debate, which was also broadcast on Rice Broadcast Television.
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