Wednesday night in Marty Theater. Photo by Adam Rubinberg
Student body officer candidates, constituents and fellow student senators gathered in Marty Theater for the Student Body Officer debate. Potentials fielded questions generated from the organizers of the event as well as questions submitted by students and audience members.
There were nine candidates, with two running for President of the Student Body, Speaker of the Assembly and Secretary of Finance, and three running for Secretary of the Assembly. The debate lasted two hours and covered a wide range of topics but mostly focused on diversity and inclusion throughout the candidate’s platforms.
Audience members questioned what steps candidates would take to further diversity and inclusion efforts on campus in substantial, actionable ways. This spurred more of a conversational format than the previous Q-and-A style.
Charlie Cohen, one of the candidates running for Student Body President, said he is discussing with Norris Chase, the director of Diversity and Inclusion, a way to bring smaller groups together so they can have more pull and have senate partner with minority organizations.
“It’s not just about saying it, it’s about doing it,” Cohen, a junior political science and public relations double major, said. “If we’re not going to do anything, then there’s no reason to even talk about it.”
Jenna Dellaria, who is running against Cohen, said things done in the past have worked, but only for a short time. She said beginning to establish better inclusion involves exposing students to the Garret Cultural Center and what resources there are as well as holding more events with the center throughout the year.
“One thing we can do is bring things a step further, like Charlie said, to cosponsor events with these organizations and have them more present throughout the year and throughout the semester so that we can have a little bit more exposure to organizations that need to be on campus,” Dellaria, a sophomore elementary education and learning behavior specialist double major, said.
Another concept audience members brought up was a block party featuring minority student organizations. Dellaria also said she thinks that having a Bradley pride parade to combine with the Peoria pride parade would be a great idea. Cohen agreed with that.
Speaker of the Assembly candidate Dave Jensen mirrored their thoughts and said he could use his connections as a Student Orientation Leader to reach out to new students who are concerned about fitting in. Gerald Regep, running against Jensen, repeated previous thoughts, and said he has started attending diversity events such as the spoken word poet Andrea Gibson’s performance.
Kaitlyn Markey said she wanted to fight to get money for different minority organizations. Christopher Chaidez said he comes from a diverse background and has experience with other cultures, and he said he thinks it’s important to be present and live by example.
A question from the audience to the Secretary of Finance candidates regarded how candidates are or will reach out to minority student groups to promote campus diversity and how to ensure Student Activities Budget Review Committee funded events will appeal to the entire campus and not just the majority.
Kelsey Vogt and Ileana Ruiz both said they want to foster more inclusive programming through their oversight of funding by reaching out to organizations. Ruiz added that minority organizations could partner with groups that garner larger audiences to collaborate.
Secretary candidate Anitza Martins said communication needs to be mutual, and both Student Senate and minority organizations need to communicate on a two-way street.
Overall, diversity and inclusion was a recurring topic throughout the debate.
“In the beginning, I thought it was too political,” Sojourner White, senior Spanish and psychology double major, said. “It was too much political correctness for me. I just need real answers; I’m graduating, but I’m still very passionate about what’s going to happen at Bradley when I leave.”
White said students want to hear more about what actions the candidates are taking to improve diversity on campus instead of hearing them simply talking about it.
“I thought they were all very qualified for the positions, and I thought what they had to say was very informative and I’m glad I came out to hear what their perspectives were on everything,” junior Television arts major Emily Girgis said.
Elections will run April 11 and 12, and all voting will be done electronically through a link shared on Hilltop Happenings and Student Senate social media accounts. The link will also be found on the Student Senate Candidates page on the Bradley website.
Student body President:
Charlie Cohen- Build Bravely
Jenna Dellaria- Braver United
Speaker of the Assembly:
Dave Jensen- Braver United
Gerald Regep- Build Bravely
Secretary of the Assembly:
Christopher Chaidez- Independent
Kaitlyn Markey- Braver United
Anitza Martins- Build Bravely
Secretary of Finance:
Ileana Ruiz- Braver United
Kelsey Vogt- Build Bravely
