All three pairs of Student Association presidential and vice presidential candidates last week declined to participate in an independent Daily Orange/CitrusTV debate that would have been held on Sunday.

The candidates cited time constraints, previous commitments and, in one case, a section of the SA bylaws that requires “recognized student organizations” to propose debates to SA’s chair of the board of elections and membership “no less than one week prior to the debate being planned.”

The D.O. is not a student organization or affiliated with SA, and did not request that the debate be held. CitrusTV, a registered student organization, partnered with The D.O. last spring to host a debate independent of SA.

Kaitlyn Ellsweig, the first SA presidential candidate to announce a campaign, said in an interview with The D.O. Editorial Board on Saturday that she and Ryan Houck, her running mate, had busy schedules on Sunday, with prior commitments to different organizations.

They made arrangements to make sure they could attend the debate, but Ellsweig said she then learned that Ghufran Salih, one of the other SA presidential candidates, wouldn’t be able to attend the debate.

“We wanted to show that solidarity and that it wasn’t just one campaign pulling out, it was all of us just not being able to do it,” Ellsweig said.

Ellsweig in a text message last Monday initially said she and Houck would be available for the debate, if the other candidates agreed to participate.

In an interview with the editorial board on Friday, SA presidential candidate John Jankovic said “we were very honest with the prior commitments we had.” Jankovic was the second SA presidential candidate to announce a campaign. Jankovic said his team had a busy schedule on Sunday.

He also pointed to the section of the SA bylaws that requires student organizations to request in writing approval for a proposed debate.

“You guys are independent which is great for media, but Citrus TV is not so we were not comfortable with that,” Jankovic said. “Especially if those are rules that we want to uphold and defend and protect and serve to you know, the community.”

Salih, the third presidential candidate to announce a campaign, in a text on Tuesday initially said she and her running mate Kyle Rosenblum would be available for a possible Sunday debate. But they realized their schedules would be just too hectic and decided to not participate, she said in the Saturday interview.

“I did not want to put on this debate without them, because it wouldn’t be fair to the audience … also in terms of just hearing everyone’s perspectives,” said Salih of Ellsweig and Jankovic.

Published on April 8, 2018 at 9:40 pm

Contact Sam: sfogozal@syr.edu | @SamOgozalek