Tickets clash in last debate a day before voting begins

Snappy remarks wafted with the smell of cookies at the final Temple Student Government debate Monday in Alter Hall.

Candidates from TUACTION! and TU Dream Team debated methods for working with administration, supporting unions and implementing allocations reform.

The debate started with a question to TUACTION! regarding its idea to have law students provide free legal advice to students.

Jon DeSantis, TUACTION!’s candidate for vice president for services, said he and his fellow running mates got this idea from the University of Florida.

“Law school students will want to participate because it will give them practice,” DeSantis said.

Sen. Alex Barnett, TU Dream Team’s vice presidential candidate for services, said this will go against the University Disciplinary Committee.

He also asked if this service would handle cases of underage drinking and cited that Alpha Epsilon Pi, DeSantis’s fraternity, was cited for numerous cases of underage drinking.

DeSantis said people should look at the crime report and see that there were no such cases listed.

Questions then switched to the topic of allocations reform, which is a major point in TU Dream Team’s platform.

Gäelle Amazan, TU Dream Team’s presidential candidate, and Barnett jointly proposed a bill addressing allocations reform. The Senate has not yet passed the bill due to debate about some of its points.

“We acknowledge that it is being opposed because people are afraid of change,” Barnett said.

DeSantis rebutted, saying TUACTION! wanted to address allocations, too. The ticket proposes to put allocations entirely online and ensure all the money is used.

TUACTION! and TU Dream Team again disagreed regarding how to handle the problems the Temple Association of University Professionals and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees unions are having with the administration.

TSG Sen. Kylie Patterson, presidential candidate for TUACTION!, first addressed why she did not vote to pass the resolution declaring TSG’s support for TAUP and AFSCME after it was vetoed by student body President Nadine Mompremier last semester.

Patterson said she originally voted in favor of the bill because of her personal feelings regarding these issues but decided to vote differently after researching the situation. She said the unions and administration need to step up communication and compromise.

“This is an issue that affects all students,” Patterson said.

Amazan disagreed with Patterson, citing the main issue is transparency. She described the recent Student Labor Action Project rally Thursday.

“If that’s not communication, I don’t know what is,” Amazan said, referring to the marching and chanting at the rally.

The debate continued to heat up when questions were opened to the audience.

The first question dealt with how TSG would handle negative press. Gerard said it has to start with using the various Temple media and build up from there. The audience again brought up communication with students as an issue.

Patterson said her ticket intends to make TSG more transparent and have students participate in weekly surveys.

Amazan talked about TU Dream Team’s plan for a “Be a Leader” campaign, as well as making a new Web site. She stressed students have to get involved.

“We are all about representation and communication, but we need students to get involved first,” Amazan said.

Senate President Jeff Dempsey asked how TUACTION! plans to pay for all its proposed services when TSG is running very low on money.

DeSantis said money is a huge concern, but TUACTION! wants to go through all the services and really make sure they are important to students.

Voting begins today and ends tomorrow. All voting will be done online at uvote.temple.edu.

Rebecca Hale can be reached at rebecca.hale@temple.edu.