 "Photo: Jennifer Jansons")
The grand finale of a Student Government presidential candidate debate Tuesday was the orange juice dripping from candidate Josh Hug's chest as he chugged from a half-gallon container, while the audience rooted him on.
SG candidates discussed campus diversity, tuition and enrollment concerns.
Candidates Brent Chaney for Focus, Patrick George for Reprezent, Brent Perdue for Books not Bombs and Josh Hug for Bears Can't Vote debated during the hour-long program.
Perdue's ticket platform includes preventing the University from bidding on Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, lowering tuition and getting better wages and working conditions for UT bus drivers.
Money the University plans to invest in the laboratory could be better spent on students, he said.
"A lot of promises from other candidates aren't meaningful," Perdue said. "I feel like issues I am focusing on really benefit students."
Perdue supports a holistic review of the admissions policy and a drastic tuition reduction, he said.
"If the University wants a diverse student body, they can't create barriers with high tuition," he said.
Reprezent is not a typical campaign, because it promotes accountability for SG money and encourages student input on issues, George said.
"We listen to students instead of presuming what is best for them," George said.
Referring to a trip SG members took last summer using Account 41 money generally spent on student groups, George said spending more than $4,000 on an SG retreat is not a good allocation of funds.
George also said he hopes to improve relationships between diverse student groups by providing open forums and open dialogue.
He plans to donate his $4,000 stipend from the University to a scholarship fund to help disadvantaged students pay for tuition, and he wants to cap admissions of top 10 percent students to 50 percent.
Lowering tuition and putting a cap on the top 10 percent rule were common goals among candidates.
Chaney's platform addresses tuition deregulation, capping the top 10 percent rule at 50 percent to 60 percent and early access to season football tickets in mid-April for seniors.
"We need to focus more on the individual student," Chaney said.
The Focus ticket is the most diverse and representative of student groups on campus, he said.
Chaney also supports construction of an outdoor pool facility at Gregory Gym to encourage campus community, while George and Perdue said those funds could be better used for students.
Hug, dressed in a large snowman costume complete with pipe in mouth, said he was concerned with parking and eliminating Coleman Lewis from the Election Supervisory Board.
He said his humorous campaign was not an effort to mock SG.
"I'm trying to focus on issues that Student Government can really handle," Hug said.
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