Associated Students president and vice president candidates gathered in the Cal State Fullerton’s Becker Amphitheater on Wednesday for a candidate debate, sharing the values behind their campaigns and answering students’ questions.
Each team was given two minutes to answer questions provided by the Daily Titan and a minute for rebuttal.
Candidates who attended the debate were vice presidential candidate Breanda Lopez, presidential candidate Cesar Mendoza, and write-in candidates Eve Dowdell and Jayden Nguyen, who attended as a pair.
Pair candidates Elyse Ramos and Emily Clymer, as well as Jennifer Morales and Nicole Nunez, were absent from the debate and not represented.
Lopez is an International Business student paired with presidential candidate Jaspreet Kaur, whose campaign advocates for faculty connections. Lopez helped create the Student Body Council at her high school.
When asked about the main student concerns their campaign aims to tackle, Lopez continued to focus on helping students build connections and on holding “cross-college” and internship opportunities.
At the debate, Lopez said opportunities need to be more accessible to students and there needs to be effort to increase student participation.
“We need culture in our school. We need bonding. We need far more than just coming every day to classes where we might not even remember our professor’s name,” Lopez said.
Dowdell, whose campaign, “Eve-ry Titan Counts,” a play of words based on her name, is a transfer student from Modesto Junior College. At CSUF, she currently serves as the president of Live Action CSUF, a pro-life club on campus.
Dowdell and Nguyen said that their campaigns focus on three essentials: student health, campus efficiency and real community.
They stated they aim to achieve these goals by establishing healthier, affordable food options and campus efficiency, specifically in the parking experience by adding convex mirrors and security cameras. They also mentioned introducing smaller-scale events that allow for student socialization and establishing student bereavement support.
“Mental health is bringing that student bereavement value policy, so an opportunity for students in their time of grief to be able to just leave for at least a day or two, no questions asked,” Dowdell said.
ASI members can advocate for parking changes, but they cannot enforce new policies or implement change, as parking at CSUF is an independent facility with its own budget and management. Furthermore, security cameras can only be managed and placed by the CSUF Police Department, which has added over 300 security and license plate cameras this year.
Mendoza, a sophomore finance student and current ASI board of directors member of the College of Business, wants to bring to the role of president his experience as a leader and the son of Mexican immigrants to help students who feel underrepresented and overlooked.
When asked how their campaign connects to the ASI Wellness Initiative, Mendoza spoke specifically to the program outlined by ASI, discussing student outreach regarding scholarships and student organization funding provided.
Mendoza and Yee’s campaign is based on the ASI Wellness plan acronym “TITANS,” which stands for Titan support, inclusivity, transparency, active campus life, nurturing wellness and student empowerment.
Mendoza stated that the lack of transparency is the “root issue” he plans to address regarding student fees and funding.
“I think transparency is a foundation that everything else sits on and I think once we fix that, the other five issues will become a lot more achievable,” Mendoza said.
Ramos and Clymer, first-year students, are campaigning behind student advocacy, leadership and building a campus where every student feels supported. Their main focus is to advertise ASI resources that already exist.
Morales and Nunez are running a campaign that advocates for issues affecting students’ daily lives, “including parking affordability, tuition concerns, housing insecurity, work hours, and access to resources.” Morales serves on the City of Fullerton’s Active Transportation Committee and Nunez worked under the 67th Assembly District.
The event “Voter Block Party Day 1: Student Car Show” will be held on Tuesday, March 10, from 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at Tuffy Lawn to celebrate the first day of student voting.
“Voter Block Party Day 2: Cars Under the Stars” featuring the film “Cars,” will be held on Wednesday, March 11 from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Becker Amphitheater.
Students will be able to vote online and in person on March 10 and 11, starting at 8 a.m.
Assistant News Editor Sathya Chaib contributed to this article. Questions submitted by the Daily Titan were written by News Editor Demiana Ghobrial and Associate Managing Editor Michelle King. They did not contribute to the writing of this article.