Candidates running for President, Executive Vice President and Vice President of Internal Affairs for Associated Students Inc. (ASI) participated in a debate Wednesday in the Pioneer Web TV Studio.

The live-streamed debate contained five candidates running for the three positions on the Board of Directors, which will be opening up with the graduation of the majority of the board.

Two kinds of questions were asked by mediator Dr. Terry West of the Department of Communication, the first being a general question posed to all candidates and the second about a specific campus issue.

The Students Against Politics slate featured three members of their slate in the debate in Meron Abbay, Latoya Lea and Heather Harbeck, who are running for Vice President of Internal Affairs, Executive Vice President and President, respectively.

Jerry Chang, who was rivaling Harbeck for presidency and running on A Clean Slate, did not attend along with other members from his slate; this turn of events gave Harbeck the opportunity to speak with no opposition.

Harbeck cited her proven leadership and motivation as to reasons why she would be elected President.

“Students have more to gain, and as a student leader I have more to give. I plan to channel and motivate students, to rally the student force,” she explained.

Harbeck advocated no personal agenda or goals besides focusing on gaining and implementing student feedback.

“Most people try to complicate the process, while I feel it is the day-to-day conversations that truly matter,” she observed to The Pioneer. “We are students—we can relate to the issues that other students have.”

Candidates running for Executive Vice President in attendance were independent candidate Robert Lopez, and Lea of Students Against Politics, while Zamil Alzamil of A Clean Slate did not attend the debate.

Lopez answered his first question by stating the previous ASI regime has failed our students and the university needs a change.

“The previous administration [was] inefficient, incompetent,” said Lopez. “As a member of F.A.M.E. (Financial Analysis Management Education) we actually submit in a request for funding for marketing, to this day we still have not received a reply rather or not it will be approved.”

“Things need to change,” added Lopez. “The level of education is declining while costs are going up, and ASI has done little to nothing to address this issue.”

Two initiatives Lopez hopes to move forward if elected are to streamline internship opportunities for students, especially international students, and to streamline the funding process for student clubs and organizations.

The rebuttal round between Lopez and Lea began to heat up as the two candidates went back and forth about the amount of scholarships ASI currently offers and whether or not that is enough.

Ian Crueldad, independent candidate and political science major, debated with Abbay for the VP of Internal Affairs position; while it was not as heated as the previous exchange, the candidates addressed issues that students are concerned about, such as the 17-unit cap.

“I think if students want to take more units in order to graduate faster or catch up so they could actually graduate in four years I think they should be able to do that,” Crueldad stated.

Both Crueldad and Abbay agreed that committee selection is an issue that needs to be addressed and both proposed a more efficient application process.

The event planned to cover a debate between candidates for Vice President of Finance, although shortly beforehand two candidates dropped out of the race, leaving only candidate Eric Pinlac in the running.

Pinlac has also committed to streamline the funding process, edit parts of the current funding policy and expand the outreach that was instigated this year under the current Vice President of Finance, Siddarth Menon.

Overall, the majority of the candidates present felt the need for change in ASI and are ready to be the ones to lead the charge.

“Things need to change,” stated Lopez. “I plan to address these issues in the Academic Senate and fight for the rights of students.”

Anne Bartlett contributed research.