The two slates running against each other to become next year's executive board of the Student Government Association faced off in the all-slate debate Monday. Here's a breakdown of IGNITE and OPTiC's key takeaways for the night.
Platform points
A guiding theme for both slates during the debate was their list of platform points.
IGNITE's points fall into six categories that form an eponymous acronym: Inclusion, Growth, Navigate, Invest, Transparency and Engage.
OPTiC's platform includes three categories with three sub-categories in each, resulting in nine total platform points. Insight, innovation and inclusion make up the three main points.
During the debate, OPTiC talked about their points focused on fostering student-teacher relationships, advancing technology on campus, organizing a UPD Cadet initiative and promoting mental health initiatives on campus.
IGNITE also discussed their platform points, which included Beneficence dialogues, a Cardinal Kitchen with school supplies, mental health dialogue, sports promotion, a women's leadership conference, navigating the transition between executive boards, weekly videos, suicide prevention training and an environmental commission.
RELATED: Meet the slate members running for 2017-18 SGA executive board
Budgets
The first question of the night asked the slate treasurers what their roles consisted of, and both Kaia Thompson of OPTiC and Theodore Hoffman of IGNITE said part of their role was to create a budget for SGA and approve it with the senate and university administration.
Later, both potential treasurers laid out their visions for the 2017-18 SGA budget. Both candidates tailored their budgets to match their respective slate's platform points.
Hoffman said some of IGNITE's platform points don't need financial backing, such as navigating an executive transition and sports promotion. However, Hoffman said he hopes to allocate $1,600 more to the small works fund, $1,500 more to Cardinal Kitchen for school supplies, $1,500 to a Women's Leadership conference to pay for seminars, workshops and speakers and $1,500 more for mental health dialogue.
Thompson also said some of her slate's platform points are free. Some that are not, however, include fostering student-teacher relationships, to which OPTiC will allocate $4,000 and advancing technology on campus, which will be funded with $5,000.
Counseling center
Both
OPTiC's vice president Katy Volikas proposed that group therapy sessions be promoted because of the large amount of students it can accommodate. Thompson also said that OPTiC will be promoting the WellTrack program to students more as well.
Volikas said that by promoting and expanding upon existing group therapy, the counseling center can "elevate what they already are doing," a common theme for many of OPTiC's platform points.
In contrast, IGNITE's vice president Zoe Taylor spoke about starting new initiatives, such as initiating public forums called Benny talks, starting peer advocate groups and supporting preventative measures against suicide.
In response to OPTiC's rebuttal questioning how IGNITE will find the resources to maintain new programs, Taylor said IGNITE plans to train 50 students as peer mentors and use these students to help with new programs instead of relying solely on counseling center employees.
Voter turnout
IGNITE and OPTiC face the same problem in elections, which is actually getting students to vote. Currently, Ball State students vote more for homecoming court than SGA executive boards, said debate moderator Abby Kirk.
To combat this, OPTiC's president Greg Carbo proposed holding more open dialogue with the student body and letting students know that they are included in SGA.
IGNITE's president Gabrielle Lloyd also said she wanted more open dialogue with students, and she wanted to inform campus more about what SGA really does.
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