Around 40 members of the UW community gathered in a Union ballroom on Monday night to watch ASUW presidential and vice presidential candidates answer questions asked by ASUW members, students and debate moderators .
Victor Hernandez, ASUW vice presidential hopeful, said he was pleased with the debate and glad to give students a chance to learn his opinions. The debate streamed live via YouTube, so more students could access it.
“I’m glad they put it on YouTube to make sure that everybody gets educated about what’s going on,” Hernandez said.
Randy Elledge, Hernandez’s running mate and ASUW presidential candidate, said he would have enjoyed having a direct talk to the other candidates, as opposed to the debate format.
“I would have loved to have a direct talk with them to be able to directly address the attacks either way,” Elledge said, “but I think the format is really great, we got to speak exactly as the students want to hear.”
Few students attended the debate; the vast majority of attendees were either ASUW senators or executives.
Elledge said he understands students are busy and unable to attend the debate, and encouraged students to check out the debate on YouTube.
“It was an hour and half long debate so I understand that students are really busy, my hope is that they would take some time and watch the debate on YouTube,” Elledge said.
Elledge’s opponent, Brian Schueler, said he is glad the debate is available online as it may give his campaign good publicity for the general election.
“Emily and I are very confident, we have done the research,” Schueler said, “Hopefully with more publicity, more people will realize that we are ready to start day one.”
Elledge said if elected an app called WyoLife will be developed in order to bring everything offered on the university website together in one app.
“The number one thing is WyoLife, the University of Wyoming’s central app,” Elledge said. “We’d like to bring it here to campus for grades, finances, class schedules, calendars, all right there, all in students fingertips.”.
Shueler countered Elledge’s plan for an app with one of his own. Shueler said there is a way to develop an app through an intermediary app, which is used in many universities nationwide for $6000 a year, instead of using more money to hire someone to develop and maintain an app.
“If we are going to pay someone to manage an app even part-time it would cost much more than $6000 a year and so through this app we can basically set it, forget it and put something up every year for student needs,” Schueler said.
Schueler said student’s care most about cancelling the plus/minus grading system. He said that, according to research he conducted on campus the plus/minus system decreased the number of A’s by eight percent last year.
“The biggest things this year on terms of votes on WyoVocal is the plus/minus grading system,” Schueler said. “Changing the plus/minus system is not only possible but also should be done. Plus/minus grading hurts students GPAs. Last semester we saw a reduction of A’s by eight percent.”
Schueler’s other projects include strengthening the relationship between ASUW and the Wyoming Legislature and improving ice removal on campus.
Emily Kath, Schueler’s running mate said she has spoken with members of the legislature about increasing interaction with UW’s student body.
“I spoke a lot with different legislators about their relationship with the University of Wyoming,” Kath said. “All the time, I heard ‘we hear from faculty senate, we hear from the board of trustees but we do not hear from students.’”
