The Allegheny Student Government presidential elections for the 2015-2016 academic school year opened yesterday on WebAdvisor and close today at 4 p.m. The two tickets running for the positions of president and vice president of ASG are Miguel Liriano (P), ’16, with Lora Waybright (VP), ’17, and Haley Riley (P), ’16, with Tess Bracken (VP), ’17.

On Tuesday, March 3, Sue Stuebner, executive vice president and chief operating officer of the college, facilitated a debate held in the campus center lobby between the two tickets. Stuebner began the debate by having the candidates introduce themselves and then continued with other questions, eventually opening the floor for constituent questions.

Some of the topics discussed during the debate included but were not limited to the Student Activities Fee, communication and transparency between students and administration, gender-neutral bathrooms and ASG’s ability to represent student voice. Each team was allotted two minutes to answer each question presented to them.

The election results will be announced Friday night after the poll closes. All students, first-year through seniors, can vote in this election.

Meet your 2015-2016 ASG presidential candidates

Liriano – Waybright

Liriano has been involved in ASG since the start of his freshman year in the fall of 2012. He has served as the treasurer and president of the class of 2016 and currently holds the cabinet position of ASG Treasurer. In addition to his involvement in ASG, Liriano is also a Bonner Service Scholar and is on the Leadership Council for Allegheny Students for Advancement and Philanthropy.

His counterpart, Waybright is a newer addition to ASG. Joining the fall of 2014, Waybright currently serves as a sophomore class senator. She is also a member of the Public Engagement Committee, the Textbook Ad-Hoc Committee, an Outing Club leader, treasurer of Lambda Sigma and serves on the Honor Committee.

Despite only being on ASG for one academic year, Waybright sees herself and Liriano as a strong team.

“When Miguel first asked me to run as vice president I was actually really surprised because it is my first year of involvement in ASG, but I think that’s really great about me and Miguel is we really balance each other out,” Waybright said. “He’s been in ASG since the very beginning and I think sometimes having a fresh set of eyes will bring a different aspect to that leadership.”

Throughout the debate, Liriano and Waybright emphasized the idea of ‘connection,’ the overall theme of their platform. The three main areas within their platform being communication, transparency and accountability.

“We definitely do want to keep involved in the action plan in the coming future,” said Waybright following a constituent’s question concerning the Action Plan for Diversity & Inclusivity. “We’re going to require one community forum per semester. We’re also going to ask AEC [Administrative Executive Committee] to attend, of course we can’t require that, but we’re going to hope the administration would love to hear student voice and keep students involved in this process.”

Liriano echoed Waybright’s ideas and stressed the importance of establishing the action plan as an everyday topic.

“We want to create a community where we talk about this every single day,” Liriano said. “It is something that should be part of daily discussion.”

In addition to creating a space for discussion Liriano also wants students to feel involved in the process.

“I can’t stress enough the importance of voting,” Liriano said.

To read all of Liriano and Waybright’s official platform visit: http://www.alleghenystudentgov.org/

Riley – Bracken

Riley has been a member of ASG since her sophomore year, fall 2013. She currently serves as the vice president of the junior class. Riley has also been an athlete on the college’s swimming and diving team, a member of the service fraternity Alpha Phi Omega and helped with the Year of Meadville steer-heading committee.

Bracken has been a member of student government since her first semester on campus in the fall of 2013. She has experience with both senate and cabinet positions, being selected as Co-Director of Student Affairs this academic year and has also participated in the Student Affairs Committee. Bracken, a Crawford County resident, is also a Gator Guide in the Office of Admissions and the acting treasurer of Newman Catholic Campus Ministry.

During the debate, Riley and Bracken both mentioned how running with each other played an important role in their decision to go through the election process.

“…I specifically really wanted to run with Tess,” Riley said. “We worked together this summer in the admissions office and we just kind of discussed this club that we really, really love and all of the issues we kind of felt with it and since then we’ve just…been talking about different ideas we’ve had and I’m really excited to bring our leadership team together. I think we complement each other really well.”

Bracken echoed Riley’s sentiments.

“I would not have been as inclined to run if Haley had not approached me about it,” Bracken said. “We have a really awesome dynamic and I’m thrilled to have gone through this process with her.”

When asked what some of the ‘hot topic issues’ on campus were, Riley immediately brought up the conversation concerning gender-neutral bathrooms. She also emphasized the importance of the SAF and maintaining its integrity.

“It [the SAF] has the potential to be managed very, very poorly,” Riley said.

Like their opponents, Riley and Bracken also discussed communication and developing an inclusive environment.

“That’s basically what we’re going to try to do, to foster the atmosphere for those discussions as much as possible,” Bracken said of the commitment to inclusivity.

To read all of Riley and Bracken’s official platform visit: http://www.alleghenystudentgov.org/