Presidential candidates Jayson Manship and Ben Tietz came to odds over support for the new Student Center at Thursday's slate debate.
"There's definitely not enough student interest," Manship said. "Student Senate supports the issue, and the student body doesn't. I'm not going to just back one and not the other."
Manship said he realizes that many students do not support the idea from reading the letters to the editor in the Daily News.
However, Tietz said his administration would continue to support a new Student Center and to keep the students informed about the issue.
Freshman and SGA senator Jessica Polley said she wants a new Student Center, and she is disappointed the issue hasn't been discussed more.
"The people who always write in to the editorial page don't always represent the whole student body," Polley said.
The candidates discussed the definition of diversity during the debate.
Vice presidential candidate Olufunmbi Elemo said the Tietz Slate represents four different perspectives of diversity.
"Diversity is not limited to race," Elemo said. "Even though a group of four people can't represent everyone, our team makes an attempt."
Meghan Newlund, Manship vice presidential candidate, said there should be more diversity in every class. One suggestion is to have professors use more minority authors in the classroom, she said.
Throughout the debate, the candidates for the Tietz Slate said together they belong to more than 30 student organizations.
"The important part isn't being able to name them," Elemo said. "It's being able to represent them."
Manship said his candidate for treasurer, Sarah Atkinson, and he belong to 29 organizations combined.
"I just pointed that out to students because the Tietz Slate is advertising their 30," Manship said.
"They're trying to make it look like we're not diverse."
Tietz said his slate isn't running to enhance its resume, instead he said the slate is concerned about student awareness. Tietz candidate for treasurer Matt Filer said he wants to keep students informed about campus safety issues by improving student and University Police relations.
Atkinson said the way to improve relations is through round table lunches and constant interaction with police officers.
"We want to eliminate the 'us versus them' mentality across the campus community," she said.
Students can vote for the slate of their choice during elections March 1 and 2 by logging on to www.bsu.edu/votebsu.
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