The first debate of this election season wasn’t a debate. It was a forum featuring Access Party’s executive candidates.
About 100 students shuffled into the Computer Science Engineering building to listen and participate in a forum hosted by the Asian American Student Union.
Access Party’s executive candidates, Joselin Padron-Rasines for Student Body president, Kevin Doan for Student Body vice president and Nicholas Carre for Student Body treasurer, answered pre-written questions from a cabinet within AASU and questions from members in the audience Thursday night.
Former UF Student Body President Anthony Reynolds moderated the debate. According to Alligator archives, Reynolds was originally Student Body vice president but became Student Body president when current president Ben Meyers stepped down due to personal reasons.
Reynolds is currently a third-year law student at UF Levin College of Law.
The majority of the questions were centered on increasing diversity at UF.
“We understand that diversity is important to the University of Florida,” Padron-Rasines said.
She said she wants to push to hire more diverse faculty members who help support the expansion of diversity courses.
Students expressed the desire to have a house on campus for the Asian-American community and for the Asian-American studies minor to expand. Another point of interest for the audience was the desire to reinstate Korean language classes, which were cut in 2009.
“We want to listen to all concerns,” Carre said. “We don’t put concerns of one group over another. That’s not what we’re here to do.”
Stephanie Wong, president of AASU, said the purpose of the forum was to allow students to voice their concerns to the candidates and learn about the party’s ideas. She said she was disappointed the Swamp Party did not accept AASU’s invitation because the organization wanted to have a real debate.
There will only be one debate between the two parties, which will be hosted by the Freshman Leadership Council on Tuesday at 6 p.m. in the University Auditorium.
“We admittedly don’t feel involved in FLC debates,” Wong said.
She said she feels the organization’s concerns are not addressed during the FLC debate and in other sectors of Student Government.
“It’s hard to get them to listen to us,” she said. “We are the ones that have to step up.”
Maria Pitt, 20, said she went to the debate because it was an opportunity to get to know the candidates.
“This is a good step in the direction toward transparency,” the UF graphic design junior said.
Access Party executive candidates Kevin Doan, Joselin Padron-Rasines and Nicholas Carre answer questions from the audience at an elections platform forum sponsored by the Asian American Student Union on Thursday.
